What a day....

[lithera]

First hurdle cleared on the work stuff. Not at all as bad as it might have been.

My grandfather is in the hospital again to put his hip back into place. I'm trying not to be worried about him. It is a hard thing as he is very certainly getting older, something I've seen much more physically than I ever thought I would. It is very hard to see someone I saw as so strong and undefeatable and intelligent and witty and... pretty much perfect, as far as I could tell, slowly change with age into someone fragile.

I've been trying to ignore the feeling of waiting but it is growing stronger all the time. It sets my teeth on edge and I really, really hate it. I am really very bad at accepting situations where the inevitable is that it will only get worse and there is nothing to be done about it.

It all comes at once, doesn't it?

Comments

[steelerdaddy.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes it does.

[nottagoth.livejournal.com]

I remember watching my grandfather deteriorate. He was independent until he was 83. He got sick and things went down from there. He lost his vision, his mobility, then finally his voice. He didn't pass until he was 88. By the time he actually passed, my grieving was done. I was relieved that he was finally free of his flesh-bound prison and his soul could move on.

It was hard for me the last time I visited my parents because I am beginning to see the fissures in them. My dad is less than two years younger than the age at which his father passed.

The takeaways are these: celebrate and honor that what was good; carry on that legacy; accept that all life on Earth is finite; cherish the relationships that you build while you can.