For those who know about Alzheimer’s, you know that it is a terrible disease. It was about seven or eight years ago when my Granddad was diagnosed with it. To say it was a hard time for my family is an understatement.
About six years, my Granddad came to visit my family for about a week, giving my Grandmother some time to herself at home in Maryland. One of those days, my parents were at work and my brothers and I were in school. My Mom got a call from my Grandmother - my Granddad had called her to say that he didn’t know where he was. He had left our apartment to walk to a CVS right outside of our apartment gate and ended up wandering into a neighborhood, trying to find his way back home. That’s when we knew that that he was getting progressively worse.
A few years later, after my Great-Grandmother had passed away, I had the opportunity to be with my Grandmother and Granddad for a week and help them get some things out of my Great-Grandmothers house. I was so excited to be able to spend that time with them by myself. Just two grandparents and a granddaughter. It was in that week though, that I started to realize that he was forgetting who I was. There were some nights that week when I would lay in bed and I would feel a few tears roll down my cheek. How could someone as amazing and gentle as him have Alzheimer’s? When I would talk to him, I would try to carry on a conversation, but his sentences were short, and he didn’t really show much emotion.
We have all known that he was getting closer to the end of his time on earth. No, we didn’t know how close, but we always wanted to make the most of our time with him. So this year on his birthday in March, I called him. I got to speak to him, and with the help of my Grandmother and Uncle in the room, he talked to me a little bit, too. I was able to tell him Happy Birthday and that I loved him. Little did I know that would be the last time I would able to hear his voice. He passed away a few months later, just a couple days before the fourth of July.
His hobby was tennis and I have seen many pictures of him with his tennis racket in his hands. One thing that gets my family laughing is when we talk about the fact that he is more than likely playing tennis 24/7 on those heavenly courts and beating whoever he is playing!
I miss him. Even though I’m glad he is no longer in pain, trapped in a sick body or dealing with the struggle of forgetting everyone he once knew, I sometimes wish he was still here. I remember him. We love you, Granddad! You have a whole family and all of your friends thinking of you here on Earth until one day we are given the chance to play a game of tennis with you!
