Guinness and my father

On April 3, 2002, my father died from complications connected with Parkinson's Disease.

Two evenings before he died, Dad was not able to drink but only to slurp water from a sponge. My wife was sitting at the bedside, rehydrating the sponge.

Sipping a Guinness Stout, she did a triple take: the glass of water, the pint of beer, the water. She re-hydrated the sponge in the Guinness and gave it to Dad. He sucked the sponge dry, several times.

That was to be my father's last earthly pleasure. A beer. A stout. Guinness Stout.

The next day, he could no longer swallow.

Albert Charles Cizauskas was born on 1 March 1920. Today, my mother and I toasted his memory with a Guinness.

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• My father, Albert Cizauskas, led a full and fascinating life. Read more: here.
• Since that first anniversary, I now toast my father, every year, on his birthday, 1 March, with a Guinness.