My father (70) is acutely ill in hospital. He is stable and functioning well, if you know what I mean, but will likely be an in-patient for the next 2-3 months at least (so essentially confined to one small hospital room) and overall prognosis is currently uncertain. He was well until a few weeks ago so this has come as a bit of a shock. My mother (65) is still working part-time and visiting him 4-5 times a week. Her life is now work and the hospital, essentially. Siblings and I are visiting whenever we can (2-3 weekends a month and also trying to go midweek sometimes) but we all live at a distance/have young children at school and work commitments, so it's not as often as we would like.
To anyone who has been in this situation, what gifts (Christmas or otherwise) would have been appreciated and might have made things easier? Particularly for my father, he is facing the situation with incredible courage but it is quite an anxious and worrying time for him and, between resting and treatment, he has a lot of time essentially cooped up in a room by himself.