When actor Steve Guttenberg’s father Stanley was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2018, police Academy and Three men and a baby the star didn’t hesitate to drop everything and drive from Los Angeles to Phoenix once a week to accompany him on dialysis.
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“He didn’t think about it at all,” he tells PEOPLE, to make sure his dad always had a family member on hand to take care of him. “My dad was my idol. He taught me how to drive and shave, how to talk to girls, how to tie my shoes and be respectful, kind, considerate. He was my greatest teacher.”
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Now Guttenberg, 65, is paying tribute to Stanley with his new memoir Time to give thanks: Caring for my herowhich tells about his growing up and being with his father in his last days.
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Steve Guttenberg’s new memoir Time to Thank: Caregiving For My Hero.
Also the details only how devoted he was — in 2020, when Guttenberg and his sister Susan learned they could train to become dialysis technicians so they could treat their father at home, they jumped at the chance.
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But it wasn’t easy. “We practiced on a thin rubber hose at night to make sure the needle didn’t come out the other side,” he says of their months of training. They also trained directly on their dad, under the watchful eye of a technician.
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Steve Guttenberg and Stanley Guttenberg in 2010.
Courtesy of Steve Guttenberg
“I’d take my time with the needle and say, ‘Don’t worry, Dad, it’s going to be okay,’ and he’d say, ‘You’re making me nervous!'” Guttenberg recalls with a laugh.
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“Sometimes you will do things for your loved one that you never thought you would do,” he adds.
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A year after they began home treatment, Stanley died after a fall at the age of 89, leaving Guttenberg grieving but grateful for the time they spent together in his final years. Now she wants to encourage others to do the same for their aging parents, if they have the time and means.
“If you have the ability to care for your loved one at home, you should do it,” he says.
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“That they look at you in the morning instead of someone they don’t know? It’s pretty cool. He would look at me and my sister and say, ‘Thank you both for doing this.’ But it was always like, ‘No thanks your that you are our dad.’”
It’s time to give thanks by Steve Guttenberg is available now, wherever books are sold.
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Source: HIS Education