Monday, July 21, 2008

Inevitable Old Age

We had a stay-at-home day today. Well, part of it was at my parent's home and the other part was in my grandparent's.

My grandfather (89 years old) and grandmother (85 years old) live 5 minutes walk away. He had a mild heart attack a couple of weeks ago and she's really too old to be nursing him back to health at her age. Each morning, my mother, Aaron and I have been walking over with some Chia Seeds. I've also been trying to cook them part of their other meals each day. This is what I stayed back in Ipoh to do. The both of them are healthy but old age and a general lack of interest in food seems to have slowed them both down significantly in the past 6 months.

I feel so sad seeing the both of them suddenly so old. My grandfather seems to have gone 60% deaf overnight and my grandmother can't remember things from one day ago. Just 6 months ago, they were both much more vibrant and my grandfather was still going line dancing several times a week.

Here in Malaysia, it is very common for old people to have live in maids to help them out around the house. For some unknown (and probably insanely trivial) reason, my grandmother won't have one anymore. She did have one a few years ago but when that contract ran out, she refused a new one. This really bugs me. I wish she would just tell us WHY so that we can work around it and they can both enjoy their old age.

Nothing much else to blog about today.

4 comments:

Jean-Luc Picard said...

My father is 84 this week. He would welcome a live-in maid as well!

Bilbo said...

My father will be 85 in December, and still lives at home, working in his garden, helping take care of my sister's children, and generally serving as the Patriarch of the Clan. I hope I'm that active when I get to be 85.

Amanda said...

JLP, Bilbo,
Its such good news to hear of other 'old' people who are still so active. I hope my grandparents get back to that stage soon.

Mike said...

I hope to just make it to 80 let alone be active. I figure if you make it to 80 you beat the averages of longevity and every day after that is a frebee.