Jul 30, 2008 21:38
My grandfather turns 90 this weekend. He's been through a cancer battle and had problems with medication that almost did him in twice, as in he lost over 60 pounds in the hospital and wasn't eating. That was only about a month ago, yet now he's doing yardwork and getting around town again. I cannot believe his ability to bounce back like that at his age; I don't know if I would recover that quickly even now. My grandma is 89 and she still swims at the Y. The really funny thing is that Grandpa is always talking about how he doesn't have energy and gets tired all the time. It reminds me of my great-grandma who lived just shy of her 100th birthday and was very physically active up until the last couple years, yet she always had an oddly fatalistic attitude; her younger sister who she lived with for a long time said that for years she would wake up and say, "Oh God, am I still here?" But Grandpa isn't nearly that bad; in fact he loves to tell stories even if he won't admit to it. Like at last year's Christmas party, out of nowhere he says, "Let me tell you how this all got started!", waving around at the three generations of his progeny. And then he proceeds to tell the story while Grandma loudly proclaims about how he's got it all wrong the whole way through. And that's pretty much how it's always been with them as long as I can remember.
Happy Birthday, Grandpa.