Dad, The VA, and Court TV

I had another unusual dream last night.
To me,
a dream is unusual when something
just isn't quite right.
O, I know.
Dreams are always
full of imagery and symbols.
I guess this particular dream was unusual
because it's another dream with my father
who is deceased.

I dreamt I was volunteering
in some sort of nursing home.
Acutally,
it was more like a veteran's hospital.
Everyone there was a vet.
Everyone.
They all had a story to tell.

I was volunteering
with lunch duty.
I would help serve the food,
poor the juice and what not.

It was getting so the place
expected me to be there
almost every day.
It started interfering with my job.
So,
I let them know that I would not be coming
as often as I had.
They would need to make other arrangements
for others to volunteer and help out.

I told them that I would only come in
on certain days.
And on those days
I would be coming in to visit with my father.
I had been working there so much
that even though my father was a resident there
I never got an opportunity to visit with him.

On the first of my visits to my father,
I had to miss work.
But I didn't mind.
I just told my pastor (I work for a church)
that this was something I had to.
He didn't like the idea of my missing work,
but he understood.

When I went to see my father,
he was sitting in a chair watching TV
in some sort of community room.
In my dream,
my dad had had a stroke
and so could no longer speak.
But I could tell that he was sad.
And then I saw that it was the program on TV.
I switched it over to court TV.
Dad always liked stuff
about court, detectives, politics, etc.
And with that channel switch
he became very happy.

The other residents
who were in the room
weren't too happy.
But then I told them to calm down,
that it was only for a little while
as I visited with my dad,
then I would switch the channel back.

In real life,
my dad was a veteran,
though he never had a stroke.
Nor was he ever confined
to any place like that as a resident.
Also,
my dad died several years ago.

So,
what does it mean
that he wanted me to visit him?
What does it mean
that even though I spent time with him
he could not speak?
Why was I working all around him,
but not with him?