Why is Joe not around this weekend?
Simple, I am in California this weekend. My grandfather has been very ill these past few weeks and, over the last few days, he has taken a turn for the worse. The summons to come came in the form of Joemamma calling me from Rome at 2:30 Thursday morning telling me to buy my plane ticket and get my ass down to CA NOW. So, here I am.
I spent from 13:30 to 22:15 with him today. He had some ups and downs. On the whole, however, he's in a lot better shape than I had expected from my uncle's description. Don't get me wrong, he's still very weak. However, he is showing strong spirit and does not give off the aura of one who has accepted death. He's still very much in the moment, when he's in the moment. Any activities seem to really drain whatever energy reserves he's got. But he's building it up. Also, from what I understand, he's starting to eat more solid food and this is helping him drastically. We wrapped up our evening flipping the TV channels between the Dodgers-Padres game and the Lakers-Mavericks game. In between naps he and I were chatting and he was drinking his boost energy drink. So, although he's not out of the woods by far, I am cautiously optimistic that, at least for this trip, I won't see my grandfather die.
I spent from 13:30 to 22:15 with him today. He had some ups and downs. On the whole, however, he's in a lot better shape than I had expected from my uncle's description. Don't get me wrong, he's still very weak. However, he is showing strong spirit and does not give off the aura of one who has accepted death. He's still very much in the moment, when he's in the moment. Any activities seem to really drain whatever energy reserves he's got. But he's building it up. Also, from what I understand, he's starting to eat more solid food and this is helping him drastically. We wrapped up our evening flipping the TV channels between the Dodgers-Padres game and the Lakers-Mavericks game. In between naps he and I were chatting and he was drinking his boost energy drink. So, although he's not out of the woods by far, I am cautiously optimistic that, at least for this trip, I won't see my grandfather die.