My grandparents, where to start. Nursing my insomnia, I am drawn back to this day. My grandparents, my grandmother more light hearted, less responsibility, free-er (if there is such a word). My grandfather, seldom unusual, almost always himself, few hints of what is to come, still able to hold a conversation, tell a story, know family and relationships. Today, he is not the same man. He has been diagnosed with in stage dimensia, another word for the dreaded Alzheimer's. In all my logic, I can not think of a pleasant way to view the situation. After going to the funeral of a friend's aunt, she was only 68, and had only known 6 weeks ago that she had cancer, she passed away. So fast, gone, taken away from her family. I sit and look at her family wondering how are they going to survive without her. I can't imagine being so young and living without your mother. Feeling like a lost soul. And then I see my grandfather. And I ask myself, what is more important-the quantity of life or the quality of life? He used to make jokes about fishing. When you would ask him what would he do if he won the lottery, he would say, "Take a fishing pole and go down to Carencro (Bayou)." That was his happiness, down the bayou, fishing. Now he is the man who knows he may not be able to find his way home, so he doesn't go. No fishing, no boat, no bayous. Even though I have said it before, I feel as if I have lost a best friend without ever realizing it. And now that we have moved, I don't wake up and see their home anymore. We have only gone across the river but it feels as if we live in another state. He sits everyday and waits for us to come home. I don't know how people live away from family, I find it gut-wrenching. It makes life so much more empty. Their is no price for the interaction of children (and adults) with other family (especially grandparents). I miss them.
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