Friday, September 12, 2008

My Grandpa Waters

My Grandpa Waters...Love of my life. He recently got very very sick. I was so upset to hear about this. He will be turning 91 this Saturday. He may be old, but he's the most spunky 91 year old man you'd ever run into. He's so friendly and loving, and he could seriously talk anybody's ear off. He's the cutest little man I know. You can imagine my anxiety when I heard how sick he was, and the seriousness of the surgery he would be having. Long story short, he had a build up of blood in his brain and would need to get it drained. They said he didn't have much chance of surviving. This is my grandpa. Life without him just doesn't seem possible. I prayed and prayed that I would be able to see him this weekend, in case anything happened. The surgery was planned for next Thursday, so I was happy to hear that I'd definitely get to see him before anything took place. Then, the surgery got jumped up to Wednesday afternoon. I was so upset. But for some reason, I just knew that I'd be able to see him. I did get to talk to him on the phone a few times, but I can't lie, that just wasn't good enough. So Wednesday I get the good news that he came out of surgery just fine. Oh was that a relief! I traveled home this weekend to see him. I was so nervous about seeing him and the condition he was in. I get in there, and he has all sorts of tubes and what not hooked into him. It did not look fun. I was happy that in my time there I got to visit him a lot and spend some good time with him. It was hard to see him like that, not being able to feed himself, laying in the hospital bed all day, and not always having someone from the family there with him. I observed a lot of great things about my Grandpa, things I always knew, but were especially present as he was there in the hospital. He is the most loving man I have ever seen. One night when my grandma was getting ready to leave, my grandpa told her to come stand next to him. He struggled to put his arm around her, and then he sang her a love song. If that isn't cute, I dont know what is. My grandparents have the cutest relationship ever! I think they act the same way they did when they first fell in love. They look out for each other, and love each other, and are just soo amazing together. I hope that one day I can have a relationship just as good as theirs. I also noticed what things were most important to my grandpa, like making sure the family was ok, his wife was ok, make sure that we all were choosing the right, and that we were all praying and keeping our faith in God. He just amazed me the whole time I was there. Anyways, on my way back to Provo I stopped by to see him for the last time. He was reminding me of the things that I should be doing, like always having faith, hope, charity, and love. He told me I should love everyone. If I don't love people, how will they ever love me? He also told me to always forgive people because that is something that would make me the truly happy. As he was saying this, I just began to cry. I didn't want to leave him. As i started to walk away he looked at me and started to cry too and asked if I really had to go. I didn't want to, but I had to. So we parted, and I started to drive back to Provo. I started thinking about how I did get to see him like I prayed for, but how much I didn't want that to be the last time I got to see him. It reminded me of a song that says, "One more day, one more time, one more sunset baby and I'd be satisfied, but then again, I know what it would do...Leave me wishing still for one more day with you." I probably listened to that song 20 times on the way home. It made me so sad. I am very grateful that I did get to see him, and that he made it through the surgery and that he is recovering very well at this point. I'm glad that he's my grandpa, and that he has been able to teach me soo much. He makes me very happy.

1 comment:

  1. Awww what a cute post! It makes me cry. I love grandpa. He is a wonderful man, indeed. I wish that I could go home to see him, too. Hopefully, I can see him around Christmas and stuff. It would be hard for me to see him in the state that he is in. I was writing in my journal the other day about that because it would be really difficult for me to see him like that, and I always want to think of him as my smiling, dancing, singing, loving life and full of life grandpa! We just continue to pray...

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