I don't know if anyone is as happy to hear about and ask questions my life as my grandfather. Amazing at offering advice, sharing a few great stories, and it makes the guys day when one if us call or visit.
The true genuine tone on the other end actually ends up making my week.
Seriously. The funeral for my grandma is tomorrow. Visitation was today. She would have been 96 Monday. I posted on Reddit 6 years ago asking for birthday cards to be sent to her and she got hundreds. We have a big family, we've eaten Sunday dinner (lunch but I'm southern, so dinner.) at her house for 50+ years (I'm 40). After grandad died, 10 years ago (He was a WW2 vet, Battle of the Bulge, POW) we went to every other Sunday. We were very lucky that there was enough money to have someone with her 24/7 after he died because it took her about a year to slip into dementia.
I spent the last few days, up until she died Wednesday, with her. i wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm glad I was actually home because i'm the prodigal son of the family. She was my last grandparent. Everything changes now. It'll be Sunday dinner once a month. Eventually it'll be just holidays. Eventually the kids, my mom is the youngest of four, one is already dead, the other two aren't in great shape, will be gone and there will be no Sunday dinners anymore.
This generation, the Depression Era/Baby boomers, don't have much time left. And, besides that, grandparents in general, usually have some things they can teach you if you listen. They may not always agree with you, or you them, but that doesn't mean that you should not talk with them. Spend time with them.
I knew it was coming. On Thanksgiving I noticed she had a couple of pressure sores on her feet and I spent the next week going to visit a woman who hasn't known me for almost a decade and taking care of those wounds. One day I walked in and her life was "flashing before her eyes." She was lucid for the first time in 9 years. She started talking and for 15 hours she told her life from the time she was a child until present day. She remembered everybody. Called them by name. She wanted to know where her Jodie was (My grandad). They were married for 68 years when he died. It was heartbreaking but at the same time it was beautiful. She called my mom by her name for the first time since 2009. She called me by name. A day later she was back to her old self, not knowing anybody, and she never recovered. I watched her die. She was surrounded by family.
You know one of the biggest things I took from that moment? there were 4 generations of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren there when she died. They wanted to be there. I saw four generations of the women of my family, from 96 to 15, together. It was amazing.
Text your grandma.
This is the last picture I took with her on the day she remembered me for the first time in almost 10 years.
SasquatchAstronaut on January 6th, 2018 at 04:06 UTC »
I don't have any grandparents left to do this with. But my mom is pretty old, I'll give her a call.
rounder55 on January 6th, 2018 at 04:28 UTC »
Truth
I don't know if anyone is as happy to hear about and ask questions my life as my grandfather. Amazing at offering advice, sharing a few great stories, and it makes the guys day when one if us call or visit.
The true genuine tone on the other end actually ends up making my week.
Offtopic_bear on January 6th, 2018 at 07:39 UTC »
Seriously. The funeral for my grandma is tomorrow. Visitation was today. She would have been 96 Monday. I posted on Reddit 6 years ago asking for birthday cards to be sent to her and she got hundreds. We have a big family, we've eaten Sunday dinner (lunch but I'm southern, so dinner.) at her house for 50+ years (I'm 40). After grandad died, 10 years ago (He was a WW2 vet, Battle of the Bulge, POW) we went to every other Sunday. We were very lucky that there was enough money to have someone with her 24/7 after he died because it took her about a year to slip into dementia.
I spent the last few days, up until she died Wednesday, with her. i wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm glad I was actually home because i'm the prodigal son of the family. She was my last grandparent. Everything changes now. It'll be Sunday dinner once a month. Eventually it'll be just holidays. Eventually the kids, my mom is the youngest of four, one is already dead, the other two aren't in great shape, will be gone and there will be no Sunday dinners anymore.
This generation, the Depression Era/Baby boomers, don't have much time left. And, besides that, grandparents in general, usually have some things they can teach you if you listen. They may not always agree with you, or you them, but that doesn't mean that you should not talk with them. Spend time with them.
I knew it was coming. On Thanksgiving I noticed she had a couple of pressure sores on her feet and I spent the next week going to visit a woman who hasn't known me for almost a decade and taking care of those wounds. One day I walked in and her life was "flashing before her eyes." She was lucid for the first time in 9 years. She started talking and for 15 hours she told her life from the time she was a child until present day. She remembered everybody. Called them by name. She wanted to know where her Jodie was (My grandad). They were married for 68 years when he died. It was heartbreaking but at the same time it was beautiful. She called my mom by her name for the first time since 2009. She called me by name. A day later she was back to her old self, not knowing anybody, and she never recovered. I watched her die. She was surrounded by family.
You know one of the biggest things I took from that moment? there were 4 generations of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren there when she died. They wanted to be there. I saw four generations of the women of my family, from 96 to 15, together. It was amazing.
Text your grandma.
This is the last picture I took with her on the day she remembered me for the first time in almost 10 years.
https://imgur.com/a/l0tSR
Edit Here's grandma and grandpa right before he shipped off for WW2.
https://imgur.com/a/5Hsoq