I should have got to this a few weeks ago. It would have been closer to my Grandmother’s birthday. With all of the holidays and me being behind with everything, I just found the time. Normally, I wouldn’t publish a photo without permission, but I think that my grandmother would not mind. I suspect that if I ever made it that far, there wouldn’t be much for me to be worried about either.
I wasn’t born yesterday. In fact, I have fifty years of experience on me. While getting to 100 is something that most of us will never achieve, I kind of see it as bittersweet. My grandparents were married for a little over fifty years and then my Grandfather died suddenly in 1994. If you are doing that math, that is over thirty years of being a widow. For a short while, my Grandma had a friend who was a lifelong neighbor and also a widower. Unfortunately for her, he was in his mid 90s himself and died a few years ago.
Probably the saddest turn of events was that my Grandma was a twin. Approximately ten years ago, her sister and life long best friend developed dementia. While they lived at the same facility, the disease took her sister much earlier figuratively and then literally. I know it was hard for her, but this is not a sad sack story. It is just a realization that life can have unforeseen difficulties when you do something that very few people ever do.
I think one of the funnest stories about my Grandma is that my great grandfather did not like like my grandfather when they were dating because he drove too fast. But, she got the last laugh when they eloped in high school. Imagine that! My Grandfather was drafted for World War II and she followed him to basic training where she finished high school. Just in case it wasn’t clear, they eventually got over the fast driving.
After my grandfather’s service he had a burning desire to be a farmer. That was not the most lucrative career. After living in a tent and a converted chicken coop, my grandmother laid down the law when my dad was school age. They purchased their first house and had some stability with my grandfather starting to work a local specialty metals mill. When my dad got college age, both he and Grandma went to the local community college, graduating at the same time. She went to work as a medical assistant where she eventually worked with her sister until she retired.
One of the greatest songs ever is “100 Years” by Five For Fighting. I have written enough and have a long enough track record, I see it in my work. I keep thinking about someday I am going to do this or that and then before I realize it, life has just flown by. Before I started writing on AltF4, I was journaling about once a week. I have been doing that for probably fifteen years.
When I read my original writings, I still have the same delimas and I have the same unfulfilled desires. Even the lyrics of the song ring true. We we are young, we want to be older, then we are concerned with our career and future. Before we know it, we are caught up in work and family until all of the sudden, we are in our twilight. I know that I am definitely into the same pattern, where I am so busy trying to get ahead that i am missing the present.
We actually had two parties for my Grandma. The first one was family only and the second one was pretty open. It is a good sign when a couple hundred people come to to your birthday party. I have been to a lot of social events and it isn’t that often that you get that many people to an old person’s event. That says a lot to the lot about the kind of life that she leads.
End Your Programming Routine: It’s kind of hard to get dedicated time at someone’s special day. It is always like that at birthdays and weddings. But, I recently I spent an hour on the couch reminiscing about her party certain life events that I had never heard about this previously. It was a good conversation and I didn’t want to leave her in the room alone when everyone went to another room. It was a good time and I wish many more but I realize that there probably won’t be too many more. Not only do I need to take my own advice about my own life but I need to make sure that I take advantage of this relationship while I still can.
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