We are all blessed with our grandparents. Some of us are lucky to spend a few hours, days, or weeks with them. I know I am definitely lucky to still have my grandmother around, however, she is not quite there. My baba (grandmother in Serbian) was the most independent and loving human being I have ever come across. She was constantly putting her children, grandchildren, and people she did not even know first. Baba was “the rock” of our family, keeping us all together, until she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. I will never forget the day I found her house a wreck. The situation really hit my family hard because the fun, loving baba we all knew would soon start to forget due to this awful disease and would later have to move in with us. Baba lived a wild life. She was born in Yugoslavia to a family of farmers. Baba’s mother died when she very young so she would jump from house to house within her family. She came to the United States when she was only 18 and married my deda (grandfather ins Serbian). My grandparents had three boys Vladimir, Zoran, and my father, Mile. Due to our Serbian ethnicity, we would go to church every Sunday and Baba would cook our family huge home-made lunches. Baba’s food was beyond delicious. Everything would come out great; she would never miss a step. However, in just a few days, her life and our lives would be turned upside down.
Baba lived alone on the upper East side of Chicago where my parents were both from. After my deda passed away,
It was an early Christmas morning, I could smell the sugar cookie smell making its way through my house. I could only think of one person that could make this happen, my Abuelita. “Grandma” I shout from my room as she was in the kitchen. I wanted cookies so bad before opening our presents. But we wait for my dad to come from his house before opening presents.
When I look back at my childhood I cannot picture it without you. You have helped shaped who I am today and for that I thank you. When I think of you i think about all the love that you have to give. I am so lucky to have you in my life and I will always cherish the memories that I have with you.
My grandma was a mother of three. She had my Aunt heather, Aunt Angie, and my mother. She raised my mother and Heather while going to college, which is a fight on its own, but to make it more difficult, she had hodgkins and had spent over an entire year fighting it in Iowa’s childrens hospital and held victory her senior year.. The chances of surviving hodgkins in the 60’s was around 75% and wasn’t the end for my Grandma, she lived to fight another day. Moving on in her life,She spent most of her time studying, she graduated high school on the top of her class, then going to college of hamilton for business. During that time, she had my mom and my Aunt Heather on the way.
In 1912 a child was born his name was Everett Babcock (1912-1974), he eventually would become my grandfather. In 1937 he would marry my grandmother, Mary McFarland (1910-1969) and they would have 3 children Everett Babcock (1937-2017) my father, Edna Mae (1940-2004), and Thomas (1944-2008). Everett worked as an auto mechanic and Mary as a beautician to support and provide for their 3 children. In 1969 Mary was diagnosed with colon cancer and die a short time later, 5 years later in 1974 my grandfather would be diagnosed with lung cancer but would suffer a heart attack and die. Since I was still a young child and didn’t live close to my paternal grandparents I don’t remember what the relationships were like. The most I remember is when we
Its tough you know, knowing that you know your mom looks up to her mom so much but she knows that she's going to pass away soon. Thats one of the reason why my mom takes so much pride in cooking and everything she does. My grandmother is a very special person, not just because she is my grandma but because she made my mom who she is and my mom made me who I am today. I wish my grandmother could live with us so my mother would be more happy and maybe have some comfort knowing that my grandma is here safe and in a healthy condition.
Does not matter if it is advice, shoulder to cry on, food or a place to stay, my grandmother is always there for her loved ones. In my family she is known as the glue who keeps us together. III. I suffered from depression for 2 years and during this time my grandma unwavering love and support always kept me going.
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
My grandma had survived a hard life, and yet managed to raise four responsible, well-educated, and successful children. All this she did while working as a respected psychiatric nurse and a state mental health board member. Although she had had and was still overcoming trials in life, I always knew she would be there and cared about me and my life. As my brother and I grew older and were unable to visit my grandparents as often as we
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
I lived with my grandmother for the first half of my life. She practically raised me. Everyone in our village would talk about how much she spoiled me. She would go out of her way to get what I needed. One day I was playing with my friends, there was food in the house but I just wanted to eat snacks. I complained and whined about it until I got what I wanted she made my uncle go all the way into the city to buy me some snacks even though I could’ve just eaten what was in the house. She was a part of me. We had so much in common. My mom wasn't unable to raise me because she was living in America.
Thank you for your kind words regarding my grandmother; she and I were extremely close, and my brother and I spent hours with her. Sadly, she passed away a couple years ago after being sick for a while. A death like hers is so bittersweet. I watched her let go of life, but with it she let go of all the pain of her illness, and that made the loss a little easier. I inherited the ring my grandfather gave her when they were both young and my grandpa had just returned from the Korean War. They got married soon after this and I think about how young they were and wonder how they were able to remain happy for so many years. I wear the ring a lot because it’s like I own a little piece of her. After her children and grandchildren, that ring was probably the thing she loved most in this world, and I’m so thankful I get to carry it.
In the novel The Kite Runner the author Khaled Hosseini uses the special and yet emotional bond between father and son to show the need of a benevolent father and son relationship. The novel in itself explains what it means to be a father and how someone can measure their success at fathering. This is done through the relationships of Baba and Amir, Hassan and Sohrab, and Amir and Sohrab. There is not a relationship between a father and son in this novel that is perfect, to each man his own. Being a father is not about following this unwritten book that instructs that a father must act accordingly, It is about caring and love which a father shows in many ways through their culture and their experiences on the earth.
In Kabul, Baba was strict, rough and controlling, trying to shape Amir into himself in order to prepare him for the environment of Kabul he would experience when he grows up. In America, without having the knowledge of the society and culture and accepting that his son already has a better grasp of it than he will ever have, Baba becomes more relaxed, giving up on attempting to control Amir. The gap in control between the two makes space for them to be more open and friendly, enjoying the discrepancies of character between the two rather than trying to iron it out.
I grew up in a small village in Mexico where there were no health care professionals. My grandmother was one of the women in the village who would take care of the sick. The knowledge and wisdom she gained over the years was passed on to my mother. One day, I remember my mother asking me to accompany her. It was late at night, all of the dogs would bark at us as we walked by, and I did not know where we were going. We came to the house of a sick child. It was then, I realized that my mother had been asked to come and give the child medicine. The privilege of getting to help the child get well again gave me a sense of accomplishment. What we had done there guided me to strive for something that would give me that same sense of accomplishment. In 1996, my family and I got the opportunity to move to the United States. As a little girl, I did not understand how such a sad and difficult goodbye would bring me to a better future. A place that has brought me closer, than I had ever thought, to accomplishing my dream of becoming a pharmacist. I am grateful for of all of the opportunities that living and studying in the United States has brought.
Of course you always hear people talking about how great their grandmother or grandfather are, I too feel the same way about my grandmother. I see her as more than my grandmother, she’s a role mole, my best friend and also like a sister when I need her. She’s always been a loving and caring person. Not for only her friends and family, but also strangers. People she has never met a day in her life she would be willing to go give her last too. You don’t find to many people like her too often.