last christmas
We just got a call from my grandmother because my grandfather is in the hospital. He has been sick for awhile now. He has a lung disease that he got from several decades of smoking. He is also extremely forgetful and is not handling his sickness very well. Six months ago all of their kids (my parent's generation) got together and decided that for the time being he would be alright staying at home. It's what he wanted to do (at the time he was still coherent) and my grandmother wanted to take care of him at home. And that's what she has been doing, but it's wearing her out too. He's a lot to handle. He's sort of become addicted to his medication, which has just been one more thing to add to the list of things that are wrong with him. The problem is he doens't really need his medication as often as he takes it, but he thinks that he does. Lately he's been downright violent when he doesn't get it. It's been really hard on my grandmother, but she kept thinking he was going to get better.
We saw him this past Saturday night at our annual Christmas party. He did not look very good and he and my grandma ended up only staying about an hour before they had to leave because he was so sick. It was really sad. We gathered all of the great-children (there are about 15 of them that were physically at the party) around he and my grandmother before they left and we all sang Christmas carols. During one of the songs my grandmother looked down at him, held his hand and started crying. We all lost it after that. It's sad, but we all knew it would be the last time he'd be there. For me, I knew it was the last time I might see him. So now he is in the VA hospital. My grandma said they are moving him to the hospice section of the hospital and that's where he will stay permanently now until the end.
We saw him this past Saturday night at our annual Christmas party. He did not look very good and he and my grandma ended up only staying about an hour before they had to leave because he was so sick. It was really sad. We gathered all of the great-children (there are about 15 of them that were physically at the party) around he and my grandmother before they left and we all sang Christmas carols. During one of the songs my grandmother looked down at him, held his hand and started crying. We all lost it after that. It's sad, but we all knew it would be the last time he'd be there. For me, I knew it was the last time I might see him. So now he is in the VA hospital. My grandma said they are moving him to the hospice section of the hospital and that's where he will stay permanently now until the end.