Granny
This past week I went to go visit a town I've previously lived in to visit friends and family for new years. It was going pretty great!...until I had to go see my granny. Here's the story...
Mom, dad, Uncle Tommy, and I were on our way to visit granny. She's 85 years old, and she has Alzheimers. She's that sweet old lady you see in the retirement homes sitting and singing with a group of old people...chances are she's the most adorable one there. Thing is, she can't live in a nursing home anymore...she needs more attention than that. Everyone in the car warned me, while on our way to see her, how much worse her particular case had become. And by this, I thought they meant she won't remember any of us and she probably can't walk by herself anymore. Nothing too much out of the ordinary. That's what they thought too. I'd seen her three months earlier...I mean how bad could it have gotten? Well, the question was answered when we walked in the home:
The house was beautiful. Two young ladies were taking care of the eight (guesstimated) elderlies living there. To my left there's a group of about 6; all smiling, all talking. I heard one of the nurses tell my uncle, "Yep. She's been singin' away all morning." Then I walk towards the kitchen and there she is...
Alone, sitting at the kitchen table, and facing away from everyone else and towards the window. Sure enough, she'd gotten worse. Much worse than we'd expected. We all surround her and she is singing things that aren't even words, and she didn't sound happy. It seemed as though she was possesed by something in her own world. She was being fairly loud and her eyes were closed as if the things she were singing were extrememly important, and we new right then how fast granny was fading. Saddest moment of my life... Momma started crying, and uncle Tommy started shaking her...to get her to snap out of it saying, "Momma...Momma it's your son. It's Tommy...we're here." And she still had no clue.
All we would do was helplessly sit and watch her. I walked around the house just to get away. There was two or three beds to a room, and there were around four rooms. I searched for my granny's bed (still hearing her clearly in the background.) Then I saw it. Next to her bed was a nightstand. And on the nightstand was a radiant picture of my grandmother in the 30's.....and a handsome picture of grandaddy beside her. I then started crying. It's incomprehendable how someone can go from young and full of life, to being oblivious to anything around you. The experience was heartbreaking, and at least I know she'll end her days at the beginning of a new decade, and descend into heaven with grandaddy and my brother.
My family is strong. When she goes, it'll be a sad loss. All of us grew up with her, and there sure are a ton of us. Cousins, 2nd cousins, aunts, uncles...all love granny to death. God bless us. Life is teaching me lessons one by one. At least I know I'm not alone. :)