home by the sea

A recent conversation and then later post by a fellow blogger touched on some past events, and those yet to come for me.

Here's the blog entry I'm referring to. This entry managed to really piss a lot of people off. Personally I don't see him as meaning to and was only expressing a point of view.

The conversation was about my future plans and what I'd seen when visiting my grandfather a few years back. Gramps overcame a lot in his lifetime. He was able to function independently up until the last two years of his life. He did need a hand doing a few things but was still in his own condo before the last two. It was those last two years that he was finally unable to care for himself and went into a nursing home. My aunt tended to his every need diligently, 12 hours a day, for the last two years at said nursing home. He had his favorite nurses and the staff there loved the old man because of what a charmer he was. My aunt became a regular fixture there and assited the nurses frequently with the other tenants living there. These were the years when I was in the middle of my unemployment and getting out to see any family was a bit of a challenge. I managed to make it out twice, his birthdays, to see him. I spent almost a week each time I was out there and was glad that I was able to. I'm glad that he had such great care and never once felt as if he'd been abandoned there. He passed away in his sleep at 104 years of age.

What I saw the other residents go through there was what had got to me. Maybe even helped steer me towards my decision to full time. I did meet a few spirited people who never gave up and learned to make the most of it where ever they happened to be in life. Sadly the majority of the residents there had simply given up. I don't want this to be me. At least if I do ever wind up in such a place that I only landed there because I was incapable of caring for myself. I hope that I'll be in full possession of my faculties (like my gramps was) and die of old age while I'm full timing somewhere out there.