![]() With the kitchen gutted, and the electrics damaged the house was declared unsafe. The fire spread quickly, and with the help of the neighbours, both my mum and stepdad escaped unharmed. The flames spread to the kitchen cupboards above the stove, and across to the microwave. It didn’t take long for the toaster to melt and catch fire. My stepdad, alone in the kitchen turned the hob on, with the toaster still in place. If you don’t decide, Chaos will get you.įor reasons of a lack of space, the toaster lived on top of the hob. The consultant confirmed our fears - suspected vascular dementia.Īs we pondered the news, entropy was about to show its hand in devastating style. It could have been Parkinson’s, but it wasn’t. The only crumb of comfort an urgent referral to a consultant. Four times this happened, with the final fall ending in a trip to the local accident and emergency hospital. My stepdad couldn’t dress, putting t-shirts on back to front, or two socks on one foot – leaving the other bare.Ī call to the doctor gave a path to an assessment for dementia or other illness. Food grew rapidly beyond its sell-by date, as the takeaways supplemented their hunger. In the kitchen, dirty plates arose like skyscrapers in Shanghai. The sofa became their bed, with the bedroom a dumping ground for their anything and everything. The promise of a new dawn was a darkness that never brightened. Hopefully, the move will help him, I thought wistfully. My stepdad was showing the signs of something more than just old age. It was a sobering experience as my brother, and I, worked like mad to get them ready to move.Īs I lay on the sofa that night, I couldn’t settle. My stepdad wasn’t right, as he pottered around, unable to help with packing. Inside the boxes still stood side by side, the lids taped together with nothing of substance packed. I was going to drive them up in their car as we feared they would never arrive. The day before they were due to move, I arrived to help. ![]() Then, the lockdown eased, and the move was on. Other signs were there if we could have looked. Boxes stood idle for months, making the front room floor feel like an overgrown maze. ![]() As the definition of entropy alludes too, left unchecked the chaos only grows. The first lockdown only compounded the creep of entropy. Or the failed house visits, because they couldn’t translate the satnav map to the road before them. We didn’t see their attempt at packing before they’d even found a home. Hindsight offers insights we shouldn’t have missed. A new home, in a new country, beckoned, as they tried to fight the pending chaos with a fresh start. Moving home, one which would mean moving over three hundred miles. I talked to mum, but my stepdad wasn’t having any of it. My father-in-law once declaring that he would never get in the car with him driving again. His driving – his one love – scared most passengers. Living on a diet of Facebook scrolling, of playing solitaire, or just drifting in and out of sleep, my mum and stepdad’s lives evolved into one without purpose. The sofa became the bed, as their lives drifted into disorder. ![]() The sense of purpose they needed to go to bed at a sensible time or to get up disappeared. But, as they both grew older, so they changed. Retirement initially suited my mum and stepdad. Subtle in the beginning, but grow they did to be noticeable to those standing afar. He recovered well, returning to drive after a mandatory break. In 2017, my stepdad suffered a small stroke. An example of entropy, not a definition No other event I've been involved in has taught me more about the power of entropy and what happens when you do nothing. ![]() It is the starkest of stories and it offers a terrifying explanation of the chaos of entropy in action. It is this version I return to as I digest the passing of my stepdad. What’s more, the longer we do nothing, the worse the chaos of disorder, randomness, and uncertainty will be. When we do nothing, we expose ourselves to the likelihood of disorder, randomness, and uncertainty affecting us. None of this makes much sense to most of us, but we must pay attention to the unique force of entropy. The second law says the entropy of a system never decreases. The concept of entropy lives within the second law of thermodynamics. "Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property that is most associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty." - Wikipedia The Wikipedia entry is wrapped up in the language of science, and if you’re not a scientist, you’re not likely to understand it. The standard definition of Entropy is somewhat understated. Document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => ) ![]()
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