As from my page title and URL you can probably assume I am very close with my grandparents, this is in fact a very true statement. From birth to the age of 10 I pretty much lived with my father's parents. My parent's both worked 9am-5pm jobs so my extraordinary grandparents offered to watch my older sister and I while our parents were busy making the pennies.
Our typical school day consisted of waking up in our row home in Olney and getting dressed for school. My mom would then pack us into the car and drive us to our grandparent's house in Cheltenham. Every day our grandmother feed us breakfast (side note: we weren't allowed to have sugary cereals because lets face it, what senior adult wants 2 sugar high kids running around their house?).
We always knew it was time for school when our grandfather walked down from the second floor. He would eat his breakfast and my grandmother would sit and wait until he was done then clear his plates. He would put us in the car and drive us to our private school around the corner from their house. Every day after school he was there waiting for us, the man was never late. He would bring us back to their house and my grandmother would feed us all dinner and we would wait for our mom to pick us up to do it all over again the next day.
Summers were very similar only there was no school. We got to play dress-up, make-believe, and go swimming. They were always willing to play with us no matter what the game was. Whether it be beauty shop, restaurant, cards, or board games they always played with a smile on their faces.
When I turned 10 our family had moved to Cheltenham as well. My sister and I became latch key kids. We no longer need a babysitter and we were able to take care of each other. So gradually we saw our grandparents less and less even though we were only 10 minutes apart now, this is perhaps my biggest regret.
Fast forward to high school - Summer 2001. My grandmother was admitted to the emergency room for not feeling well. She was diabetic and had had some joint pain so she took Alieve to ease it. Apparently Alieve is a blood thinner, she was already on blood thinner medication and they needed to perform a blood transfusion. Something so simple turned into something so complicated. I remember the last time I saw her it was in the hospital, she was disoriented and not making any sense. I told her I loved her and never went back; I couldn't handle seeing her like that. She died a few days later.
My grandfather did OK for a while but he started to fall apart after about year. He became more and more clumsy and got hurt a lot from falling. Summer 2003 he was admitted to the hospital after a fall. He too became disoriented and would try to pull out his IVs so he could leave. The hospital sedated him to prevent him from hurting himself. The final time I went to see him he was comatose, I was alone with him and cried and begged him not to let go. He died a few days after that.
It has been a few years since their passing and I am still grieving. I am not sure I will ever be able to speak about them without crying or getting choked up.
Fast forward to 2007 - I am engaged to be married and wanted to incorporate something from them in my wedding. I wanted to wear her wedding gown but she was shorter then me and the dress was not preserved and the seamstress feared the material would break down if she tried to manufacture the dress I wanted out of it. I was very upset but went on to find the dress of my dreams.
A few months before my wedding I was visited my aunts who still live in the house that belonged to my grandparents. They were going through things and I stumbled upon a pair of my grandmother's earrings. I asked if I could keep them for the wedding. I had them polished and cleaned with my engagement and wore them the day I said "I do".
The earrings have a safe place in my jewelry box and my heart reminding me constantly of the love a grandchild can have for her grandparents.
