Wednesday, December 16, 2009

My favorite time is also my saddest


The photo above is of Grandpa Weller. Grandpa Weller is Brent's grandpa but feels very much so like he is mine and as if he has been my entire life. I truly love and adore all my grand parent in-laws. I am also lucky to have married into an ENTIRE family that I love so much. I know that's not always the case with a lot of people. Right now Grandpa is in the ICU in Pennsylvania and of course we are sad that we can't just pop over to see him. Grandpa is almost in his 90's and has been married forever to grandma. I wish I could figure out how to work this darn scanner because I would have posted the sweetest photo of him and grandma on their anniversary. I have the photo on our fridge! we received an e-mail this morning from Brent's mom letting us know whats going on with him. I had previously stated in an older post about how Brent's mom had recently taken on the position of caring for Grandma and Grandpa and let them move into their house. Grandpa became ill maybe days after they moved in. I told Brent it's almost as if his mind and body new that grandma...the love of his life...was in good hands and now safe and being taken care of. Grandpa has ALWAYS been wide eyed and aware of everything at least until yesterday. He has now been talking about things like an airfield in Rhimersburg and smoke. Obviously, Grandpa was in the military! These times in my grand parents lives are my favorite times and they are my saddest times. My favorite because they are so often remembering things about their pasts and I get to learn so many things about them but it goes hand in hand with the fact that they are elderly and they aren't in a right state of mind.Dementia of some sort maybe.
This makes me actually think of my grandma. I was never a really great kid growing up and at young ages I was crazy naughty and fought alot with my brother and the teen years..well...that's a whole long drawn out story! I was never real close with my Grand mother on my dad's side and wasn't even sure she actually cared. When I married Brent later in my mid 20's I took Brent to Tennessee to meet her and by this time Alzheimer's had already kicked in pretty bad. She would repeat everything..alot! But, I got to hear amazing stories. My grand mother was CRAZY SMART and had a ton of degrees she also taught in Africa and wrote books that were published. I can only remember her watching one show my entire life and that was Jeopardy! To be fair I don't think that I truly appreciated her until later in life either. While we were there she told us a story of her in Alaska and bob sledding with sled dogs. She even pulled out photo's of the whole experience! Our visit was good and a bit short. While we were there we hit up the pink palace and the Memphis Zoo and of course Graceland! She only met Brent once and that was the last time I saw her but til the day she died she said how proud she was of me because we went to museums when we visited her and how much she adored Brent. She was proud of me and I am so thankful for her being so proud of me and as much as I wished that I had taken the time to see her again... I am good. I have this glorious image of her standing next to sled dogs like in the photo and great stories whether she meant to tell us or not.
We never got a chance to make it to Pa. for hunting season this year and that's when we usually get to see all of Brent's side of the family. We just moved to Alabama and we aren't financially stable enough to make the trip since the big move. We will be going up during the spring and have had the trip planned now for a while. I can't wait to tell Grandpa how much I love him and give him a hug. Of course Brent feels the same way. He has an amazing love and a truly amazing respect for Grandpa Weller. Please pray for his healing!

3 comments:

  1. you should tell me more about them one day when we are not in a hurry with our visiting....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow all the things your Grandma did was so cool! I'll be thinking of your Grandpa Weller and say a prayer!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gina,
    I am so glad you had the time with your Grandma. Those are the things that comfort us when we face days without them.
    I will be keeping Brent's Grandpa in prayer. God is so able to do the miraculous and we trust Him for that.
    I miss conversing with you more. Life gets so busy and full---that's good but that's bad. Just know that if you don't hear from me, I am still thinking of you and your family and keeping all of you in my prayers.

    In Grace,
    Marie

    ReplyDelete