My grandmother...
...is not long for this world. She is 94 years old, and has lived a great and adventurous life on her terms...but we had a scare today, it may have been a false alarm but the end is near. Hospice will hopefully be called in to make her last days more comfortable...and for the family. She is my last surviving grandparent...She came to the US to keep my uncle company and to help her daughter with her two grandkids (my sister and I). She got a job teaching Chinese to English H.S. students in VA (one of the first to do so), and when my parents forbid her from driving...she went out and hired a driver teaching school to teach her and got her licenses behind my parents back...and then bought a late 1970's Mustang. Late in her life, she would play Mah-Jong with friends all over the DC, MD, VA area...regularly coming home at 2am (sometimes we would talk when we both had come home in the early A.M.) She never wanted to trouble anyone and lived her life on her terms...going where she wanted to go and doing what she wanted. The first hip injury slowed her down...and second hip injury pretty much kept her at home. A know she lost a major part of herself when she lost her independence. I remember her sneaking candy behind everyone's back...pushing my mom and aunt's buttons. My greatest wish was that she could see her great-grandson and was relived when she did...and that she got over a year and a half with Josh. I know she is close...I am trying to mentally prepare...but tonight's false alarm reminded me that I really haven't succeeded yet...She isn't ready to go yet...I hope she keeps on fighting...but I also think she's going to go on her terms...not any of ours...