Watching the elderly age

I am so very lucky! I am 24 and have all 4 grandparents alive and well with me. Not only that I have grown up with them at my birthdays, their birthdays, christmases, thanksgivings... well you get the idea! We have all shared the lovely city of Vancouver and formed a slightly tightly knit group! It's funny how over the years our Christmas table has gone a little senile, let us say! It has been comical to see those around me yelling at each other neither really knowing what the other is saying whilst they are stuck in their own little world! Okay, well I do exaggerate a little.

My mum's mum- my grampa (yes I spell it that way on purpose) has been through the ringer I tell you. And he had his 4th heart attack on December 31st. He came out of the hospital shortly after and then went back in just this past Wednesday- Jan 20th because we thought he was having seizures. My parents were in Mexico and we called them to come back home and they did! My grampa is slipping and no longer the man I know. I see him there, sitting in his chair, no longer speaking, no longer able to feed himself... and that ll happened just in a very few days.

It's so painfully sad to see my Nan- his wife- with him. It is so beautiful and so sad at the same time. She is clinging to everything she can. And why wouldn't she! It is her RIGHT to do so. She is at the hospital every morning to give him breakfast, shower him... then lunch. She goes home for a few hours and then back for dinner. This is her husband, her partner, her lover, he life! Despite their very interesting dance of love it is so ever present every moment they are together. She yells at him and he mutters something inappropriate under his breath that she can't hear and she calls him a "stupid bugger" every day! Well- that's what used to happen. Now she kisses him, rubs her hand gently upon his cheek, feeds him, chats with him without much response... but there is still a connection there. A beautiful connection understood by only them!

Love runs deep in their veins ... oh so very deep! What will happen next we shall see! I have seen him everyday except yesterday because I needed a break. It is so emotionally draining! And somehow I am supposed to carry on with real life too????!!!! As in I have school tomorrow??????!!!! I am supposed to go! And I will go- just having a bit of a distraction might be what I need.

Love & Respect!