It's Tough Growing Up & Watching Loved Ones Grow Old

I'm 33 & let me tell you it is hard watching my loved ones grow old.

My grandma passed away 9yrs ago. She was young but she was sick so it was to be expected. Plus with the birth of my 2nd child & living far away it didn't hit me that hard.

But, my grandfather passed away 3 1/2yrs ago & that was very sudden. Can't tell you how hard that hit me. It still hurts sometimes.

My grandmother is now 91 & I tell you I fear when we'll get that call. She lives in CT & we are in GA. One of my uncles hit 60 last year. That was a shocker when my father told me.

Funny as a child you don't even notice these things, you know? Grandma is Grandma & in your mind she always will be.

I've watched my husband's grandparents grow older over our 14yrs of marriage, seen them in nursing homes and wake up in the middle of the night to a phone call letting us know they have passed.

I've seen my husband's only living grandmother go from a wild, free spirited woman to someone who forgets a lot, fight cancer and hearing my mother in law worry about what to do with Grandmama.

Then look at all my favorite tv actors such as Bill Cosby . . . I was so SHOCKED seeing him one time on TV. I almost didn't know it was him!

I had my 33rd birthday back in July and funny how it didn't "FEEL" like a birthday you know?

At 33 I still feel like a kid, you know? Yet then LIFE hits you and wakes you up. Sometimes I wish I could slip into the past and hear my grandfather's laugh again. Or see my uncle teasing us and playing with us like one of the kids.

At least we have the memories. I love sharing them with the kids and others. Hope I didn't bore you. I've learned of my long history of depression to turn a NEGITIVE into a POSITIVE so let's do that.

Share some of your favorite memories of your loved ones who are "growing old" while you "grow up". Share them with our kids, family, friends or even me.

Here is mine & I'll try to make it short -

My grandfather who passed away about 3 1/2yrs ago was a short man about maybe 5' 3" or so. But he had a HUGE heart. He'd go ANYWHERE & I mean ANYWHERE and he would know someone there. Even when he'd visit my family in MS (where I lived for a good bit of my early childhood years till I was 13). He was a real people person. His laugh was like Santa's. He had a thick northern accent being from New England. I loved it since I grew up in the south & have a true southern girl twang. lol

My favorite thing to do with him was to take walks. The neighborhood he lived in with my grandmother had walking trails. I loved walking them with him when I'd visit up in CT for 2wks every summer. Him & my grandmother loved history & culture. So they'd take my sister, cousin & I to all these historical places all over New England. It was no big deal for them to drive us up to Maine for a long visit just for the day! He loved car trips.

That was the man I knew & when he passed away & read his story in the paper (close to half a page!) I was shocked to read all he had done in his life time. He had designed the neighborhood with walking trails, owned a bunch of hotels, worked with people of his city and state of CT, raised money for Red Cross, helped make the roads of his town safter (I'd always hear driving around his town "Granddad put up that stop sign" lol) & tons more. But to me he was granddad. A true angel in Heaven.