My last living grandparent is in a nursing home 30 minutes away. Not far, really, but too far for me to drive myself currently. A family member drives me to that town every other week to teach a couple piano lessons - right across the road from where Grandpa lives. But that is unfortunately during the only time Grandpa is awake during the afternoons. When I finish teaching he is heading to supper and then soon to bed. I don't get to see Grandpa nearly as often as I want, but at least Mom gets to visit her dad most times during my lessons.
One day a change in schedule freed me up to join Mom for part of the time!
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| My phone camera doesn't do well in this lighting, but we love it that Grandpa has so many windows! |
It was a sweet visit - talking about Grandpa's upcoming 100th birthday, answering his questions about our lives, pointing out the bundle of wheat for the birds outside his window (a tradition from our Norwegian heritage)...
And though Grandpa has trouble hearing and is nearly blind, his mind is so sharp! He surprised us by asking for the placemat on his table with a map of the States. It had been on his breakfast table, and someone had told him about it, so he took a couple copies back to his room to "look at" later.
We were Grandpa's eyes as we talked our way all over the country. The state capitols were blanks to fill in with just the first letter of each word, so we racked our brains for as many of the 50 as we could remember. (I need to get out those flash-cards again! Maren and I used to have them all memorized.)
Then we marked down all the states Grandpa could remember having visited or driven through. A lot! No wonder I love to travel... I got it from both sides of the family.
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