“Sometimes things don’t work out the way you wanted,” my dad told me recently when I visited him at the nursing home.

I asked him what he meant.

“I’m getting tired of being here,” he said.

Two months ago, we moved my dad to a nursing home. At the time, we told him and ourselves it would be a temporary stay. But we’ve since decided that he’ll remain there indefinitely because my mom is no longer able to care for him.

Dad’s response left me unsure of what to say. It was the first time I’d heard him complain. In the beginning, he seemed to like it there and resigned to the decision we made. Maybe it was the newness of the place — the novelty of being somewhere different from home. Dad, always the social butterfly, quickly endeared himself to the staff and, it seemed, to other residents.

On most days, you can find him near the nurses’ station curious about who’s coming or going. The nurses walk by and smile or call out his name. One staffer told me she shared a tamale with him and told him she couldn’t wait for my mom to bring some of her delicious Mexican food dishes.

The staff has told me he’s doing well (I’ll get a progress report today). Physically, he might be okay, but I worry about his morale. I guess I’m experiencing what many children feel when they put a parent in a nursing home. Perhaps this is not a good comparison, but I imagine it’s much like how parents feel when they leave their child in daycare. I’ve had many friends tell me how they don’t want to leave their child in the care of someone else, but they have to so they can go to work.

Sometimes I feel like that parent, checking in to see if he’s okay and feeling terrible when I have to say goodbye. One afternoon when I popped in for a visit, Dad’s words left me teary-eyed.

“My dream came true,” Dad said to me.

“What’s that, Dad?” I asked.

“That someone would come to visit,” he responded.

I put my arm around him and gave him a hug. Later, I found it hard to tell him I had to go, so I asked him if he wanted me to stay longer.

“Just a little bit longer,” he said.