Grandma
My last surviving grandparent celebrated her 95th birthday this weekend. I don't think that she is going to make 96, or I may be wrong. She still has the fight, common with the family (and her generation), to live.
It is really sad, though. She can't see very well, anymore. Nor can she hear or remember for the short term. This is a very determined woman. She, and her now dead husband, raised five kids in a small town in Illinois. She stayed on in IL, farming, long after grandpa died. (He died in 1982). She was finally convinced to move to CA, where the majority of the kids live, so that her eldest could watch her. Since moving here in 1998, she has broken her hip and found to have no shoulder sockets (either arm). She is in an assisted living facility in the same town as her eldest.
I have such a hard time dealing with her as she is today. I remember the indomitable spirit and zest for life that she once had and compare that to the broken shell of today.
It is heart wrenching.
It is really sad, though. She can't see very well, anymore. Nor can she hear or remember for the short term. This is a very determined woman. She, and her now dead husband, raised five kids in a small town in Illinois. She stayed on in IL, farming, long after grandpa died. (He died in 1982). She was finally convinced to move to CA, where the majority of the kids live, so that her eldest could watch her. Since moving here in 1998, she has broken her hip and found to have no shoulder sockets (either arm). She is in an assisted living facility in the same town as her eldest.
I have such a hard time dealing with her as she is today. I remember the indomitable spirit and zest for life that she once had and compare that to the broken shell of today.
It is heart wrenching.
posted by Earth Rooster @ 21:51
2 Comments:
At 21 August, 2005 07:36 ,
Her Daddy's Eyes said...
My great grandmother died, aged 96, in 2001. It's very hard. But they've lived such long, beautiful lives. And I always remember the good: Sitting sea side in Ocean City on the broadwalk with her, eating fudge!
~Eyes
At 23 August, 2005 12:49 ,
Kent said...
All four of my Grandparents died when I was young. My favorite Grandmother passed away the summer before my Senior year of high school.
Since that time I've been blessed to have known Bud and Winnie, neighbors of mine. They, somehow along the way, morphed into my 'pseudo-grandparents.'
Now that they are getting into their mid 80's, it's kinda sad to see just how much they've diminished. They are now both just shells out their former selves.
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