Well, over the weekend I went up to Oklahoma City for a min-family reunion. I had a lot of anxiety going up. My granddad has Alzheimer’s and it was kind of one of those “go up and see him while he still has a shot at recognizing you” things.
I’ve been through it before to some extent. And there’s all sorts of stages to the decline. Right now, Grandpa kind of slides in and out of recognizing people. At one point he asked Grandma who all those people in the living room were. At another he recognized my cousin who’s in the military and started telling her stories about the cruises he did in the Merchant Marines. Including telling her about 2 countries he never went to. But even though this all kind of sounds bad, he’s at a point where even when he doesn’t completely know who we are, he still seems to think we’re nice people. And even though he’s never been to Japan or Russia, he really seems to enjoy his memories of going there. So, if you just kind of relax and let him be who he is right now, and don’t push him to remember this or that or act like his old self, it’s easier to deal with.
On the other side of the coin, my cousin brought her new baby boy. Who is about as broad as he is tall. Little square baby with a faint glaze of white blond hair and a big, gummy, sunny smile. My nieces thought he was just the cutest thing ever, and they wanted to know if we could go get one right away. They were very disappointed to find out that you can’t just go pick out a baby and take him home. They decided that they’re just going to have to work on their parents to make one the old fashioned way.
Our family get-togethers are always exhausting. Everybody is talking a mile a minute. And listening 3 miles a minute, because you’re in about 3 conversations at once. And people wonder why I’m hyper-verbal. In my family, it’s a freaking survival skill. Especially since most of them are word junkies and you don’t know which direction the next pun will come from, or how somebody will deliberately misconstrue something you say just to get a rise out of you. Sitting around at the dinner table is like a conversational Hong Kong action flick.
So I was exhausted by the time I got back to the airport to go home. Of course, that was before they made us get off the plane because there was a delay (bomb scare at Dallas Love Field – the Curse continues). But, it’s fine. Made it home in one piece. And very happy to see my homey-of-me-owney. Love my family. But they just wear me out.
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2 comments:
That does sound exhausting - I'm gald your get together was a happy occasion though - seems many "reunions" for families are due to funerals and while it is grea to see everyone, it is a shame that it has to be under those circumstances that puts in everyone "priority" box.
We went through a long time where we hardly every saw each other. But in the last 5 years or so, the stars have aligned and we've been able to get together much more. Turns out we like spending time with each other. Family! Who knew?
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