I came to Cedar Rapids to care for ailing grandparents. I'm not sure I was ever prepared to even consider their deaths. Three weeks before my sweet 16 I was told I was terminal and that there was very little chance I would live to see my eighteenth birthday and "it would take an act of God nothing short of the flood" for me to see my 21 birthday. Even though those predictions proved to be false I never really moved passed them in my mind. I expected to die first.
A week ago yesterday my daughter and I arrived to help care for ill family and yesterday morning my grandmother passed into the arms of her beloved husband. No one really knows how to deal with a situation like this, especially not me. Some of my grandmother's children came up right away to the Hospice House and others didn't even bother. We're trying to plan some kind of family gathering to remember and honor her, but I doubt all of her children will show up. I do think most of her grandchildren and great grandchildren will come to honor her memory.
This trip is more difficult than I expected. In a few days or a week my daughter and I will go stay with my paternal grandmother and help her care for my grandfather and just take care of herself. Hopefully grandpa will be released from the rehab/care center shortly. My husband and I want them to move out to Portland with us that there is always someone to help take care of them. My grandma doesn't want to, but grandpa does. At this point I don't know who will win.
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