Family Ties, Pt. 1

Well, this week was almost like a family reunion of sorts. The little bro came down to visit, and together we went to see all our grandparents. Troy is about to move alllll the way across the country to Oregon. Yes, you read that correctly. He seems to be on a quest to "find himself," so more power to him! He's moving with four other guys, so I'm not quite so worried about him as I would be if he was going alone. I honestly think it's brave for him to just pick up and move. I would definitely have troubles with that myself!

Anyway, first we went to go see my mom's parents. About a month ago, they moved into an assisted living home, and it was Troy's first time being there. Grandma is in the midway stages of Alzheimer's Disease and my grandpa just can't take do all the things needed to take care of her by himself anymore, even though he tried! He only just stopped driving about three months ago at the age of NINETY-TWO. It's so amazing to watch these two, and also hard. Grandpa sang their wedding song while we were there, called "Some Sunday Morning," and at one point was looking straight at Grandma as he sang it. I was fighting back tears. The State newspaper even wrote an article about them for Valentine's Day. Their love is so awe-inspiring. Here's a link to a slideshow they did of them:
http://www.thestate.com/static/media/galleries/Singing_Couple/index.html

Then we headed off to Camden to visit our Granny (and aunt, uncle, and cousins). It was a surprise, which is always fun! If I'm being honest though, it's really hard for me going back to Camden now. My aunt and uncle live in the house where my dad grew up, so obviously it makes me think of him. And Granny always wants to talk about him, which I try to humor as much as possible, because I know she misses him like crazy. It's just still sad for me to think about him, so when she wants to tell stories about him constantly, it makes it that much harder. I'm hoping that over time, it will be easier for me to listen, and also easier for her to not miss him so achingly.

But all in all, it was a great day, and I'm SO glad I got to see everyone! (you too morg!) I made Troy take a pic with me, but it was on my IPhone and it won't rotate properly to post (let me know if you can help me). So go to Facebook if you want to see it :-)