I Consider Myself Blessed To Have A 91-Year-Old Grandmother

One night in January, I couldn't sleep and it was 4am and then out of the blue I got a call from my sister.. At first all I had was questions, “What do you mean his organs are shutting down?” And then she said it-- grandpa’s dying. She called telling me that our grandpa, who was battling cancer on and off for eight years,

That day when I returned home from school, my mom’s boyfriend called me asking to speak to my grandmother. Typically, Gus would call my grandmother himself if he wanted to speak with her, which was rare. I found out about my mom going to the hospital from my grandmother after that phone call. The doctor told my family that a stroke afflicted her in the middle of the day. My mom confused the date with her birthday, had trouble getting words out and remembering our family member’s names. The nurse had to take her for walks periodically and exercise her legs and arms because they were weak. Seeing my mother in this condition made me appreciate my mother and everything she does for me tremendously. However, I was terrified for my mother’s health.

My cousins, my sister, my brothers, and my aunt watched as the paramedics packed up their things. They had taken everything back into the ambulance outside where there were police cars and a fire truck. Everyone in my neighborhood had come outside because they heard the sirens and spotted the police cars. Many people had walked up to my sister and my aunt to ask what was going on. She quickly gave them a brief summary and we watched the police cars, the fire truck, ambulance drive off. My aunt and cousins told us to take good care of my mom and they slowly walked away. As soon as we could faintly hear the sirens, we walked back inside to check on my

My grandma was my superhero with her genial personality and her ability to give you her full, undivided attention in order to listen to whatever you had to say. It was always my dream to be able to share both my high school and college graduation with both my parents and grandma and being able to later pay them all back for all their sacrifices. Towards the beginning of my sixth-grade year my grandma became unexpectedly sick and as months passed her health slowly began to deteriorate until she fell into a vegetative comatose for the next four years. My grandma’s sudden illness came as an unexpected surprise which leads to my mom and her family having to take turns in order to care for my grandma throughout her extensive hospital visits and inhome medical care. Throughout those four years both my emotional and mental health took a hit as I tried my best to learn how to deal with her sudden illness and the fact that my mom was rarely home because she was either in the hospital or at my grandma’s house in order to help take care of

When I was younger, I grew up with four grandparents who I could spend time with. As I started to grow older, my grandparents started to deteriorate. My grandmother developed Alzheimer’s, and more specifically dementia. I remember one day at my beach house when I was talking to her, she asked me who I was because she couldn’t remember. She didn’t remember her own grandson. She started to lose all her memory and she had difficulty hearing and speaking. It got to a point where there was no way of communicating with her, and we wondered if she even knew who her own family was. She went through this deterioration for upwards of 5 years, and I it got to a point where I forgot what she was like before she developed the mental disease. I would watch

A few months into the school year I got some news from my parents that referred to my grandmother. She had an accident in her home that put her in critical condition. At this point my father rose to the occasion and began to watch after my grandmother, his mom. Taking care of my grandmother was not an easy task. She was constantly being moved in-between nursing homes and hospitals. She continuously had unstable vitamin levels and her body and was just in very poor physical condition. My father held on though, he was always by her side making sure she was okay. While my grandmother won’t ever fully recover, she is doing much better. It’s because of my father that she’s still alive today. I lost more of my innocence through all this but at the same time I learned that when things get bad, family takes care of one

When I was about nine years old, my father had a stroke. I do not remember a lot when I was younger; I do not even remember what happened when he had a stroke or even a couple of months after that. What I do remember is that he stayed in the hospital for a year or two, then he was able to come back home. I also remember that the doctor that took care of him said that he would never walk again. At that time I thought that my father having a stroke was the worst thing that could happen to me. I never thought that anything worse could happen to that situation but something did happen. Not something to the extent of death but something that I would have never imagined.

My Great Grandma was my best friend, I’m not sure how else to describe our relationship. She was someone I looked up to and hoped to be like when I grew up. She taught me a lot about life and how crazy it can be. Whenever I have tough days I replay her encouraging words in my head. Towards the end of February of 2013, my family received a call from my Great Grandpa to inform us that my Great Grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. We found this out only a few weeks before we were supposed to head down to Arizona to visit them for spring break. Our family didn’t know how severe it was going down there, we came to find out she was genuinely unhealthy. She didn’t want to leave her room, she didn’t want to complete simple tasks, she would tell

She immediately came to me , hugging me as tightly as she possibly could. This happened several times afterward, it became a “tradition”. A month passed, and my mom said that Icould finally see my grandfather now that he was feeling better. Finally, the day came and I finally got to see him. He looked so droopy and dull unlike his personality. So I started to to talk to him, he seemed so excited to see me! Afterwards, he gave me my birthday card,and I was so grateful! I could not believe he thought of me while he was sick!

Baseball season was on the horizon and I needed to replace my bag so we drove to Academy. On the way to Academy I felt really tired but who doesn't when their sick. I started to walk into Academy and made it fifteen yards before everything went dark. I woke up being rushed into the ER hearing a lot of unfamiliar voices and the feeling of blood coming out of the side of my head. I was told that I had a seizure, shortly after that a familiar voice came in it was my grandma and behind her my mom and dad. I a matter of hours I had the situation explained and 8 staples in my head. Once moved to a regular room I was able to wash the blood out of my hair and take a shower.

I was eight when it all happened. I knew that my grandma was ill but being a clueless little kid i never quite understood the severity of her sickness. I remember when my dad first told me that my grandma was sick, i didn't think anything of it i honestly thought he just meant that she came down with the flu. We’d visit frequently, and every time i'd always tell my dad i didn't know what he was talking about because she seemed completely fine. Her face still brightened with a the happiest glow when she saw me and my sisters. She still loved to teach us how to bake, even though by the end of it her once neat and tidy kitchen, was now a total mess. She didn't care though because our

It all started about 6 years ago over the summer; I have been staying with my grandmother and my older sister for about a month, and during that time, we were always happy and having fun, my grandma was completely healthy for someone her age always in a happy mood and active. I remember one day we were walking outside talking about what we wanted to do or be when we grow up. As we were walking around her garden, she started complaining about her chest hurting so I offered to go and get her some water. I ran inside and grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge and ran back to her, I saw her sitting on a bench clutching her chest, she tried to stand up but she almost fell over. My sister and I rushed to her side and walked back to the house when, we got inside we yelled for our aunt to come down stairs and told her what had happen. After that, I do

Mom went over first, thanking God that my father had the forethought to create an emergency fund we could use to buy last minute tickets. Dad and I didn’t plan to go until Saturday, when the news of grandma passing pushing us to go and support mom. In truth, I felt almost indifferent to my grandma’s death; which might seem shallow, but I never knew got the opportunity to know her. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease before I was born, and when she first met me, she was in a stage with sudden mood swings. My mother tells me that she went from calmly talking to my Aunt to angrily grabbing my baby carrier from my mom and trying to walk out the front door while mom and Aunt Mary tried desperately to calm her down. I never knew my grandmother when she would be able to remember my name and not mistake

My grandmother had always filled my child mind with memories of her kids childhood such as how they were the four musketeers and were just like “The Brady Bunch” I always thought my grandmother was beautiful, kind, Christian woman, who loved her family more than life, but those were lies I soon figured out from my mom and aunt. My grandmother has MS(Multiple Sclerosis) a disease that has taken her ability to work and care for herself and complete everyday tasks. It has progressively gotten worse since I was around five or six so my mom and grandmother decided to have her move in with us and trust me that was like uprooting a tree, but the tree was a 90 pound all skin and bones hunched over old woman from the cramped white house she’d lived in for years. My grandmother had become an onion and with every layer you peeled back you learned more of the truth even if it hurt. I learned what my mom and aunt had gone through as kids and why my grandpa really left this woman I’ve never known.

We all got into the car and immediately my sister was bombarded with questions. “Is he ok?”, “What happened?”, “Who is with him?” She answered each one to the best of her knowledge. She told us that his heart had stopped and started back up again, and that Mama (my Mom) and Papa (my Dad) were at the hospital with him. The car ride there was a very scary ride, because we were all so frightened by what had happened.