NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–For more than 17 years Steve Green has been recording music that has catapulted him to six Dove Awards, four Grammy nominations and 18 No. 1 hit songs. Through the years, Green has balanced ministry with his 23-year union to his wife Mary Jean and their two children, Summer, 20, and Josiah, 16.
These days, though, another responsibility has been added to Green’s life, one that he cherishes — as one of his father’s caregivers.
It’s been 12 years since Green learned that his father, Charles, had Parkinson’s disease. At the time, Charles, now 71, and his wife Jo, 74, were living in Phoenix.
“As the disease progressed, they needed help and we wanted them to come and live with us,” Green told Baptist Press. Green and his brother have land holdings in Franklin, Tenn., a southern suburb of Nashville.
“It seemed pretty reasonable to us that they would finish out their last days with us,” he said. “So we prayed and told our parents that we wanted to help.”
Green’s father, however, wasn’t so set on moving. A lifelong missionary in South America, Charles only retired when the disease was first diagnosed.
With his father still resisting the idea, Green and his brother pooled resources and decided to build their parents a home on a parcel of land that was situated between their Franklin homes.
“We told them that the house would be here when they wanted it,” Green said.
Over time, Charles came to terms with the move and gladly accepted his sons’ offer. “He told me that he felt stuck and now we were able to unstick him,” Green said. “They never saw the house until they moved in. It was a small cottage built with love and the best view around.”
During construction, the Green family wrote Bible verses on the studs — verses remembering God’s provisions, his love, his patience and rest.
“When they got to the house we made them cover their eyes,” he said. “We led them inside and they just cried.”
It’s been six years since that day and Charles’ condition is worsening. The disease has taken its toll on the former missionary. He is completely bed-ridden. A sitter maintains watch during the daytime, while Green and his wife put him to bed in the evening.
Green’s mother has had her share of health battles, too. After cancer surgery, she had both knees replaced. Still, Green said, she is a “radiant beam of sunshine.”
For Green, these have been long years, watching his father die.
“It was difficult watching him,” he said. “I was raised on the mission field. When I was 8, I left home for missionary boarding school. I was never around my dad that much. I missed doing a lot of stuff with my dad.
“For a kid,” he said, “a dad is important.”
At 45, Green said when he saw his father in their new house, “he wasn’t the same dad that I had known growing up.”
“One day I was mowing the yard and I started to cry,” he said. “When I saw my dad sitting there in his rocker, I told God that I wanted my dad back.”
Despite the hardship, Green said it is a “tremendous blessing to help with his father’s care.”
“There is a tremendous outpouring of affection for him from our family,” he said.
Along with his brother, David, Green’s children also help care for Charles.
“I hope they are picking up some lessons from this,” he said. “That’s what family is about,” he said. “You celebrate the high points and quietly go through the difficult times.
“Dad’s dream was to die and be buried in South America, but God’s dream was to let him be an example of how a Christian dies slowly,” Green said.
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: STEVE GREEN.
