I'm back!

I consider myself a very lucky man. How many folks in my age group can go visit a living grandparent? How many of my high-school classmates knew any of their great-grandparents?

I've known three of my biological grandparents fairly well. My mother's father died when I was a youngster--I was probably five at the time--and had had health problems for over ten years before that, so I really didn't get to know him at all. I only remember having seen him once or twice. On the other hand, my paternal grandmother's mother (my great-grandmother) lived until I was eight, and I got to spend a lot of time with her.

My mother's mother passed away ten years ago, and had been dealing with some form of dementia for a few years before that. She knew who I was the last times I saw her, but it always surprised her that I was an adult--she remembered me as a child, never mind having seen me as an adult before her dementia took over.

My father's father died early in 2006, a few months before what would have been his ninety-fifth birthday. He and my grandmother had been married a few months over seventy-two YEARS. Shortly after he died, I posted a brief reflection on but one facet of him to the kycyclist list server.

Anyway, my surviving grandmother recently had some heart problems. She now has a pacemaker, and her doctors have been fine-tuning her medications so that she can enjoy a few more months (or years--who knows?) with us. Things were a bit "sketchy" for a week or two, but she has rebounded in fine form. She is in good spirits, enjoys a laugh or three an hour, and although her hearing and vision are not what they once were, she still figures out what's happening in her world and enjoys being with folks.

Jenn and I got to go visit her for a few days.


We took the tandem, figuring on getting out on it a bit. We rode it a total of about nine miles. It just seemed more productive to spend the time we could visiting. My grandmother had been one to take a few naps a day, but she has been more alert the last few days, enjoying the world again now that her heart is pumping more as it should. It was a great visit. I'm very glad we went.