Family

Now that I'm not playing WoW anymore, I've neglected my blog and haven't posted in a while. I actually started writing a journal (diary sounds so 13th grade girl) instead of keeping a blog, with some of my thoughts on life and just a way to get it down on paper.

But I decided this morning, after waking up that there were some things that were meant to be shared.

I had a dream last night that we were having a family gathering at my grandparents' house, as we often do. My mother's grandparents host our big annual family reunion, going back to perhaps my great-grandfather's children I think. There are usually a lot of people there. And every year, my grandparents look more and more tired in the week leading up to it. I think they are around 80 years old (Is that terrible of me not to know? understand at least this, my mom has 3 siblings, my dad 7. I have around twenty something cousins. Remembering everyone's age is out of the question for anyone outside of your extended family.)

Anyway in my dream, I saw my grandparents doing the hosting of the party, but they looked much older and slower than they usually are. Especially my grandfather. He was going up and down steps that looked much more like ladders when he climbed them, and at the end of the dream, he collapsed in the grass outside. He had simply passed out, because he sat up. I made him stay laying down, and it wasn't too long before I woke up, covered in tears.

I decided to share this because of another story that I have to tell. In the summer of 11th grade (2001 it would have been) I went to Governor's School for Health Care from July 1 through August 4. I met someone there who I ended up making good friends with. We talked about a lot of stuff. One of the things we ended up talking about were our grandparents. He had lost the grandfather that he had been so close to, and impressed upon me the importance of spending time with grandparents while they are on this earth.

We had one weekend that we were able to go home, and so on that Saturday my dad was headed over to visit his parents, and I decided to tag along. My grandmother was a house-wife, having had 8 kids. I never talked to her much, most of my time spent over there was with my cousins. But while I was there I took the time to talk to my grandmother. It couldn't have been more than 15 minutes, but it was something that I had never done. I could tell that she enjoyed it.

The morning after I came back, August 5th, I found out that my grandmother had passed away in the night due to heart failure. Apparently she had a disease that doctors have given her one year to live...in 1991. She lived another 10 years, and saw her 17 grandchildren (at the time) grow up. And I had gotten to say goodbye before she left.

This helped me immensely. I don't know if I would have had peace in my heart without those valuable 15 minutes of time that we spent.

I still have 3 grandparents left. I am blessed in this way. But I know that someday they will be gone. I know that someday my parents will be gone, and all of these aunts and uncles that I hold so dear to me. And so my message is this.

Make sure you spend time with your families. Families are wondrous things. They pull different people with completely different personalities together in a loving relationship. Although some families would call themselves dysfunctional, they are still bound by love and the time shared together. I have a very strong family, and I am eternally thankful for that. I pray that I am able to spend more time with my grandparents before they go. But it could happen in 5 minutes to any of them.

You may never get that last hug before they go, so you'll never be truly ready. Even if it's just 15 minutes, make sure you spend time with those you love, just in case something does happen. They will appreciate it, and you will too.