August 10 of this year I assumed the privilege of sharing life with grandson, Teddy, almost 6 years old, and his parents, my son, Jason and his wife, Alison. After much discussion about some physical challenges I am facing, it was decided that I would retire from my much loved job in the field of architecture, and move in with my son and family where I could have more support. I'll be having a knee replacement surgery in February 2015 and that is going to improve my mobility greatly.
My new life is so much more wonderful and rewarding than I had expected, and each day I feel more and more settled and, as I said above, privileged to be sharing these years with Teddy. So many sweet, funny and valuable moments take place each day. At this point, T is thrilled to spend time with me, shares his many thoughts and even his imaginary friends with me, and I feel compelled to try to save them in this form, so someday, he will know just how much this time means to me.
My health issues have become more acute, and despite the physical struggle I have each day, I am loving every minute. T looks out for me, and often reaches up to literally give me a hand when he anticipates I may need it in moving around. Each day, I help prepare meals, do household chores, and drive T to his various events, and to the school bus.
11/17/14
Very heavy rain and quite cold. Before I got out of bed, Teddy and his Dad had backed my car into the garage so I wouldn't have to go out into the rain when taking T to the bus stop. As I came down the stairs, T could hardly contain his excitement about the car being already for me. Last night when I returned from spending the weekend with Lou (my long time partner), T had a long list of things to tell me about from his weekend. He had a new haircut, he had washed the living room windows and arranged the curtains to keep the cold out, and he was a little chatterbox about his other weekend activities. He now owns a glow-in-the-dark spaceship shirt, too. Daily we discuss all he needs to take to school, in the evenings we work on homework and discuss his day. He very willingly follows through on brushing his teeth, washing hands, etc. He is so affectionate and forthcoming with exclamations of love. The sweetness melts me to tears. We experiment with new foods daily. He DID not like the corn chowder his Mom made for dinner last night. LOL.....he has moved on to loving fresh pears and some cooked carrots last week. I was honored that Alison made my Mum's rendition of corn chowder. At least the adults were happy with the menu. He will get there. I think it is a consistency issue.
Before school this morning, we read the paper and talked about photos, including one where 30 families were burned out of their apartments over the weekend. We talked about how we might help, and we also picked words that T understood out of headlines .
