On Father's Day itself, we went down to my parents' house, about an hour south of us, to spend some time at the ol' homestead for the day. On the way down, we stopped at the nursing home my grandparents live in to give Grandpa his Father's Day card and to visit a little. They weren't expecting us, so Grandpa was really happy to see us :). He hasn't seen the kids or Dana in quite a while.
Grandma was sleeping in her chair, which I'm told is what she does most of the day now. I wasn't able to wake her, but finally the staff member that came to take them to lunch in the dining room was able to get her awake and in her walker/chair. At that point I was able to talk to her and she knew I was there. It hurts to see her like that and I wish I could wave some magic wand to make it all better. God knows what's he doing so I have to have faith in Him.
Her health has taken a definite downturn since I saw her last, and since she is already in hospice care and the docs have said there is no more they can do. It's really just a matter of time now. A few years ago, Grandma was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia and after oral drug treatment, was managing well for quite some time. It did age her (before the diagnosis, I think she she looked at least 20 years younger than her actual age, she's now 89), and the various side effects, along with the normal processes of aging, have taken their toll on her body.
Grandpa looks great (he's 90), is in overall good physical health, but has short-term memory loss. He is of course extremely worried about Grandma. At least they are able to be together at this time, and the facility they are in seems to take very good care of them.
After our visit with them, we went to my parents' house. My brother Jason arrived soon after, and we had a nice time just hanging out with the folks. Jason and I spent some time going through some of the boxes my mom had brought home from my grandparents' home, which is on the market right now. I acquired some of Grandma's clothes, as she and I used to wear pretty much the same size and have similar styles (in sporty comfortable clothes most of the time). She's hip. :) It was fascinating to go through some of her older photo albums, ones from when she was in her teens. I had somewhat of an idea of what was going on in her life then, but seeing it laid out and illustrated for me just brought home that she has had a really full life, and learned about overcoming life's obstacles far sooner than she should have. I may elaborate on those obstacles someday, but not right now. She was also quite the artist, along with her older sister, and they have some amazing pencil drawings of the movie stars of their day (Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald were two of my grandma's favorite actors). At some point I'll have those scanned for posting.
But I will leave you with two other photos. The first is Grandpa when he served in the Navy (I'm guessing that photo was taken in 1945). The second one is Grandma and my mom from about the same time.
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