In 9 days, my Gramma will be 100.
And she lives with me.
Gramma moved in with us when she was NINEty eight. She had lived with my mom for 3 years prior to that, but had a stroke in December that year and was in the hospital for a month. My husband is an avid hospital-visitor, and one or the other of us dropped in to see her, taking her ice cream (vanilla!) every day. I think it may have been the only thing she ate. She swore they fed her green beans at every meal, and that if she ever got out, she would never eat another one (and she hasn’t!!!)
She went back to my mom’s after she was discharged from the hospital. But recovery didn’t go well. She was not the agile person she had been before she went in. My mom struggled to help her (please keep in mind my mother was almost 80!), and hospice was pushing for nursing home care. My husband literally said, “Over my dead body!” and we moved her in with us 4 days later.
I chuckle as I look at that paragraph. It looks so simple: problem, solution, done! It wasn’t really that smooth at all. I’m a children’s minister and I work from home. I had to give up my “office,” and my sister came and helped me move crates of stuff to our basement. Our youngest daughter had a medical baby mid-covid and they were in the process of moving out of state when their baby was released from the hospital. So baby, mom, and dad all moved into our extra bedroom the weekend before gramma came to live with us.
And it’s a good thing they did. We put Gramma in a wheelchair, and my husband and son-in-law carried her in. At that moment, we spanned 5 generations living under our roof! When I was growing up, I’d heard about the sandwich generation, but I started feeling like a freaking Big Mac!
We had newborn diapers and adult briefs, breast milk and leftover protein shakes, butt paste and Preparation H, oxygen hoses and central lines, drs appointments and home health. There were enough Kleenex and baby wipes I needed a snowplow! I suddenly had a new appreciation for multigenerational Amish families, and I kept telling myself (and my daughter!) that we would come out of it SANE!
My daughter and SIL were able to find a house and a job within 6 weeks. I don’t know if the cramped and crazy living conditions had anything to do with it (!), but I do know Gramma’s rebound had a great deal to do with holding a baby. At first it was a lot of work, detangling tubes and making sure Gramma’s arms could support a little one. But the anticipation every day of “baby therapy” far outweighed the help of home health (not that I’m discounting them! But I think they did ME more good, and the medical baby did Gma pretty much a miracle!)
Those 2 still have a tight bond. When they come into town for hospital visits, they stay with us for a few days (and we span 5 generations again!). But every time, the toddling youngster seeks out the ancient one, and although one doesn’t quite talk yet, there is plenty of communication going on!
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: (1 Peter 2:9 KJV)