This weekend is definitely one of those weekends.
I think that is going without saying that watching someone you love grow older and get sick blows. There’s not a nice way to put it. It sucks. I am such an optimistic person, and life is so wonderful and amazing, but this is one aspect of reality that I just can’t wrap up in a pretty bow and say, “It’s alright.†Because it’s not, and it really never is.
But there were great parts of the weekend, too. The Husband and I love to talk to my grandpa and ask him about his life – he remembers so many crazy details! He even remembers the first and last name and occupation of the woman that was sitting next to my grandma on the day they met. I can’t even remember who I went to high school with.
Other fun facts about my Gee-pa, who will be 95 in July:
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His first job was delivering newspapers when he was 11. He made 50 cents on the weekdays and $4 on Sundays. He turned all of his money over to the family, as much of this was during the Great Depression.
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He had six children, and when the first two were babies, he gave my grandma a year’s worth of diaper service (no disposables back then, so everything had to be washed and hung up to dry). It cost $4 a month. He said it was the best gift ever.
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He wasn’t allowed in the delivery room for the birth of any of his children. That’s just not how they did things back in those days. He sat in the waiting room until a nurse came out and said, “It’s a boy!â€
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The down payment on his first house was $500.
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“Prohibition was stupid.â€
There’s always some good with the bad, right? I guess you just have to make the effort to look for it.
Hotel/supermarket breakfast, which looks kind of gross but was actually quite tasty.
Oatmeal with banana
OJ
Toast and buttah
Deviled eggs
Time to go home. 450 miles to go.
My grandfather had a cardiac scare (at 82) last week and was hospitalized shortly because of it. Thankfully, it wasn’t heart related at all but I totally understand what you mean about the realization of aging. It sucks and it’s really hard to deal with when there’s nothing you can do but watch it happen. I live 45 minutes from my grandfather and don’t see or talk to him nearly enough. It’s sad that’s what it took to wake me up to that fact because you never know when they’ll be gone.