Oh Crapole- SUPER BECKA just got me. PAss the tissue Lisa Come on girl! Dayumm. and Hell. Sniff Sniff.
Aha, I knew it would get someone. My mom sent me a link for that video yesterday and I watched it twice... and cried my eyes out. Bring on the Kleenex!! And my mom isn't even old yet, she's only 43!! But that video and the letter that you posted from your grandma got me thinking about my grandparents, and I felt really guilty.
One of my grandmothers died when I was 12, and every so often, when I think of her, I miss her really bad and wish I'd spent more time with her, talking to her, getting to know her. But I was young, I didn't appreciate her, and now I don't have her anymore.
My maternal grandparents are both still alive, my grandfather is 72 and my grandmother is 68, and I feel really guilty about how I feel around them sometimes. I love them both very much, but I find myself getting frustrated with them as they get older. I don't mean to, it just happens. It's just a hassle to have to repeat everything I say to my grandfather because he never wears his hearing aid, and my grandmother has a habit of telling the exact same stories over and over and over. Sometimes, when my mother and I are with her, she'll look at my mom and tell her a story, then turn to me and tell me the exact same thing over again, even though I was sitting next to her for the whole first telling. It's just so frustrating sometimes, and it's hard to look past that and realize that she's just getting old and her mind is going, and it's even harder to accept that. And it's harder still to accept that they'll both get more and more helpless as they get older and that eventually, I won't have them anymore, either.
And I can't imagine my parents being that old and helpless, it pains me to think of it, and I know it's coming. Luckily, I'm pretty sure they both have a good 20 years or so before anything really nasty happens to them, they're both still reasonably young, but I know that it's coming, and I hope I can be patient enough to deal with them and help them in their "golden years".
I guess the moral of the story is, appreciate your parents and grandparents, listen to what they have to say, help them when they need it, be patient and compassionate without being condescending, and love them no matter what. After all, they're the ones that raised us and made us who we are today, and someday, we'll be all they have left.
-Becka :)