My grandma went to the hospital today, they kept her there for observation after they stabilized her blood pressure. We were talking about her day and she was telling me how her skin is rough and leathery. Then she said, I don't like getting old! She laughed and I laughed and then she got serious. She said to me, I never felt old until your grandpa passed away.
Grandma started sharing with me how Grandpa used to act like he was gonna live forever. He never acted old, he was always healthy, why, he even had a full head of hair still. Then one day he got sick and ten days later he was gone. It was so sudden that it didn't feel real. He was older than her so she never felt old. But now it's different. Life is different. She's living in an apartment close to one of her sisters instead of at the farm she lived at with Grandpa. Grandma said that its harder to live with her sister than it was before. She had over fifty years with my grandpa Paul. And it's been about a year and a half now since he passed away and the foreverness has set in.
After talking and listening to my grandma I realized that for her it was one of the most important decisions in her life when she married my grandpa. They shared life together. They completed each other, he helped balance her out. Grandma said she was probably a loner when she was growing up, and that's with six sisters! Her relationship with my grandpa was strong and he was always there for her. Life may not have been perfect but with Grandpa she wasn't alone.
One thing I always remember about my grandparents is that whenever we tried to get a picture of the two of them, grandpa would pinch my grandma. So she was jumping and hitting his hand away and laughing when we snapped the camera. Then grandpa would chuckle and put his arm around her again. Every time grandpa would get a kick out of it, which made all us grand kids laugh. One thing I learned from my grandpa was don't take life too seriously. I appreciate even more how much my grandma leaned on him, not realizing it until he was gone. When you have a great relationship with someone, you become like a 3 legged chair when they are gone, it's like something is just not right. Life is just a little unbalanced, and you may not realize it at first. Cherish your spouse, grow closer, don't let anything come between you. Laugh together, learn together, love each other.