Oklahoma visit
I went on my usual holiday trip to OK, which I was very glad to do as I missed it last year.
There was snow my first night there! I miss snow.
Visiting family is so weird. Despite any changes there have been in our lives we have interacted the same way for at least a decade. All of my cousins are now taller than me. The oldest (at 17) is a beefy 6'4'' and the youngest (10) is already my height. I don't know where all their tall genes came from. The tall woman in my family is 5'6'' and their father's side is only just above average in heights.
I can't believe that they're all so old. I remember holding the oldest in my lap when he was 3 mo. old. Now he's thinking of where to go to college and they were asking me if I thought my expensive Smith education was worth it.
It was such a contrast to go from my father's very lively family to visiting with my mother's father.
My grandfather's condition has deteriorated more every time I see him. We were in the final stages of selling the home he lived in for almost 50 years and the he built most of. Now he's in a wheelchair, can't change his own diaper, is closing in on legal blindness, and is very easily confused. He tried to dial my uncle's number (he has a paper with our numbers in thick, inch high numbers) for 16 min before he finally allowed me to dial for him. He asked what his oldest brother's name was. He doesn't notice his diaper needs to be changed until his pants are wet so his entire room smells of urine, although the deodorants we bought helped with that some. He used to be so independent and hates having to be helped all the time. Although he can't hold a conversation the one thing he still seems to enjoy is being visited. But he won't leave his town, where he lived for over 50 years, and he has a kid on each coast so his immediate family visits only once a year. He does have a few friends that come by and his cousin's grandson takes him out every other week, but he is still left alone much of the time. I'm convinced he doesn't hear the telephone ring much of the time, as he's hard to get a hold of. I wish I could think of something he could do.
It's so hard to see him like that, and I'm sure it's even harder to live it. I'm starting to come around to his & my mother's belief that it would be better to be dead than live like that.
There was snow my first night there! I miss snow.
Visiting family is so weird. Despite any changes there have been in our lives we have interacted the same way for at least a decade. All of my cousins are now taller than me. The oldest (at 17) is a beefy 6'4'' and the youngest (10) is already my height. I don't know where all their tall genes came from. The tall woman in my family is 5'6'' and their father's side is only just above average in heights.
I can't believe that they're all so old. I remember holding the oldest in my lap when he was 3 mo. old. Now he's thinking of where to go to college and they were asking me if I thought my expensive Smith education was worth it.
It was such a contrast to go from my father's very lively family to visiting with my mother's father.
My grandfather's condition has deteriorated more every time I see him. We were in the final stages of selling the home he lived in for almost 50 years and the he built most of. Now he's in a wheelchair, can't change his own diaper, is closing in on legal blindness, and is very easily confused. He tried to dial my uncle's number (he has a paper with our numbers in thick, inch high numbers) for 16 min before he finally allowed me to dial for him. He asked what his oldest brother's name was. He doesn't notice his diaper needs to be changed until his pants are wet so his entire room smells of urine, although the deodorants we bought helped with that some. He used to be so independent and hates having to be helped all the time. Although he can't hold a conversation the one thing he still seems to enjoy is being visited. But he won't leave his town, where he lived for over 50 years, and he has a kid on each coast so his immediate family visits only once a year. He does have a few friends that come by and his cousin's grandson takes him out every other week, but he is still left alone much of the time. I'm convinced he doesn't hear the telephone ring much of the time, as he's hard to get a hold of. I wish I could think of something he could do.
It's so hard to see him like that, and I'm sure it's even harder to live it. I'm starting to come around to his & my mother's belief that it would be better to be dead than live like that.