So, this past week my stubborn grandmother fell on her face while taking an evening stroll. She missed judged her steps and the pavement of the uneven small town road absorbed all of her body weight via her face. You know it hurts to catch all of you body weight with your face! She broker her 87 year old nose and had to get her face stitched up, all while successfully breaking 7 of her remaining teeth. Nothing worse happened. No broken limbs, hips, etc. I’m really not sure how that happened, but thankfully it did. She is stubborn and refuses to stay any longer than 3 days in the hospital. She goes home and falls again, this time wrapping herself backwards around her toilet somehow. She told me that was her most graceful fall! So, she’s back in the hospital and again not wanting to stay any longer than necessary. Needless to say, we travel to see her and encourage her to spend time in the hospital gaining her strength back so as not to go home and fall again and injure herself any further. Before I go deeper into this story I will give you some background on my grandmother. She was born in 1928. She has lived through most every significant historical event known to our generation. She was a single mother when it was absolutely unacceptable to society. She gained a college degree from Oklahoma A&M (Oklahoma State University) when women didn’t go to college. She remarried and had another son. (3 sons total) two of which are doctors! She took care of her husband (my father’s adoptive father) until he passed from complications of type 1 diabetes. She took care of her father until he passed away at 99 years old. Through raising boys, caring for her husband, and caring for her father she obtained a Masters degree. She has never been one to accept any role placed on her. She’s always created her own roles in life! Now back to our hospital visit. We are in her hospital room with her paid caregiver that usually is at her home with her throughout the day. Her caregiver and her together remind me of the “Ya-ya sisterhood.” Telling me stories of fender benders, missing wigs, etc. It’s a long story…. Anyway, I’m cracking up listening to them tell me how onery they are as older women. It was hilarious and while watching them laugh at themselves, I’m thankful that my grandma has Mary to help her. You see, my grandmother has lived in the home her deceased husband built her for 56 years. She wants to die there like her husband and her father did. I understand this…I’m compassionate for her wants and needs and I hope that we as a family can help her to live out her days the way she wants and die the way she wants. As we continue to visit my grandmother’s lawn guy comes to the hospital to check on her. She immediately starts talking lawn care with him, as if she isn’t even sick. He seems shocked that she is still able to be so bossy while all banged up. If I posted the picture of her banged up face on here…you all would be shocked too! Her eyes were so swollen she couldn’t hardly see! Then she starts to go around the room introducing the lawn care guy to all of us. She points to my husband and tells of his Native American descent. Then actually proceeds to tell the lawn care guy that I walked on to the tribal grounds and snatched my husband right up. My husband immediately starts laughing. I am dying laughing. My sister is laughing incessantly. Only my grandma could come up with this crap. I mean really! Who says that? I guess we’ll blame it on the fact that she’s old and delirious. Although the way she said it and how serious she was when she said it, did make it quite funny for the rest of us. It was a good laugh. She gave her grandchildren and great-grandchildren a good story to tell. Definitely one we will never forget! I love my grandma. I know she’s lived a long life. I’ve been fortunate enough to have her for this long. My kids have been fortunate enough to know her as a real individual and not just someone in my stories. Cherish the elders in your family, they bring so much more to the table than we could ever imagine! Listen to their history. Listen when they talk about what the world used to be. Listen when you hear it from their point of view. Take notes and gain wisdom!
blendedfirstfamily 