I have a special bond with my grandparents. Unlike some people, I never hated to go visit them. They’re both in their 80’s although my granddad tells people he’s 46, you’re as young as you feel and unfortunately not as fit as they used to be.
My granddad is a strong man. During WOII he was forced to join the army and has fought in Indonesia for years, while my grandmother waited for him at home, not hearing from him for months. After he got back they got married, and a few years later they had my uncle. My mum came a few years later, my granddad delivered her himself, because the doctor forgot his book and had to go home to look up what he had to do. When he came back my mum was already born and the doctor asked my granddad: ‘So, how did you do it?’. My granddad always worked hard in a paperfactory, while my grandma stayed at home with the children. My granddad is a man with a great sense of humor, always joking around and fooling all of us when he’s pretending to have a sore back and laughing hard when we’re concerned. On the other hand he’s a very stubborn old man, who has his own specific opinion and it’s very hard to make him think otherwise. My grandma is caring, she wants to please everyone and is always interested. She can worry a bit too much sometimes, so we tend to keep the bad news to ourselves. Come to think of it, I’m a mix of both my grandparents, maybe that’s why they mean so much to me.
Unfortunately they’re getting older, my granddad has laughed at men and woman strolling by with their walkers or in wheelchairs, but now he can’t deny he needs one himself. Still he prefers to sit down on his walker and rolling backwards into the elevator, because it’s just more fun that way. My grandma has had Altzheimer disease for a couple of years and recently my granddad is also diagnosed with a form of Altzheimer. My grandma is very forgetfull and her short term memory has almost gone completely. Still, she always remembers what I’m up to, which is pretty special. Altzheimer disease has been hard on my grandma, who does notice she has the memory of a fish; she almost forgets the moment something happened. Altzheimer can sometimes lead to hillarious situations, though. Everytime I visit them, I find something different in the cookie cabinet. While my grandmother is looking for cookies, I try to take out pairs of shoes, a half-full pack of juice and a paperplate with what looks like a cold, deep fried snack, without her noticing it. Things are never in the right place, and I often find the remote controll in the magazine chest or the sugar in the tv cabinet.
Also they now go to ‘daycare’, because it’s now becoming too dangerous for them to be on their own. To give an example; my granddad walked all the way to their old house when they had just moved, to pick up his laptop because he thought he needed it. that he doesn’t know how to use is just a side issue He didn’t bother asking anyone for help, he just took off and tried to carry the heavy thing back to the new flat. Please notice that my granddad already has trouble walking without the walker, let alone walking all the way there without it, carrying a heavy laptop. That it didn’t go smoothly goes without saying; on the way back he fell down in front of the elevator and broke his ringfinger. Now they live in a nursinghome there’s a few people looking after them, which is quite nessesary because, stubborn as my granddad is, he tried to cut off the cast with a sharp knife because he thought it was uncomfortable.
My grandparents are not religious, but live in a religious nursinghome, so to their suprise the first week they found themselves attending a service and to make matter worse for them, they were seated in the front. They decided to just keep listening, but at the end of the service everyone around them started singing. My grandma was half asleep, but my granddad was fairly awake and didn’t want to stand out of the crowd, and have a little bit of fun of his own so he started miming the hymns. Apperently he got really into it, because afterwards the nurse came up to him to compliment him on knowing the words so well and his excellent singing. He tells me this story every week, while laughing hard at his own prank.
My grandparents are the sweestest, kindest and funniest people I’ve ever met, and to give you a bit of an idea why, I took some pictures with my IPad.
Always cherish the people around you, think of what you have before it’s gone.
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5. Then I attached the top and bottom part to the cd holder and put an old fluffy cushion on the top so my cat could chill on that part. Cost: €0,-
6. At last I wrapped the rest of the cd holder with an old scarf so the whole thing would be covered. Cost: €0,-
Smiles.. 