Heritage

I can't even begin to describe how incredibly blessed I know I am and how blessed I feel after the week my family has had. Sometimes its easy to forget that it is unusual to be 26 years old and still have both sets of my grandparents living and married happily. That is what I have. I've never known a life without all of my grandparents full of love for each other and our family.

A week ago Friday I was on my lunch break and my dad texted me to call him which is highly unusual. He said "I just wanted to let you know that Grandpa King had a mild heart attack. But it's OKAY. He is OKAY, don't worry, he's going to be FINE, don't get upset, its OKAY." He knows me all too well that I cry about everything. So my dad flew up there to be with his parents and stayed all week. It was really weird timing because that night I was driving up to go to a retreat with the singles ministry at my church out in the woods with like no cell reception. Literally the night before I prayed and asked God to protect my family and my friends because it seems like every time there is a retreat or God is working, satan likes to attack. So I just had to go on the retreat and trust that God would take care of my grandpa.

Of course when I got a phone call from my mom Sat. afternoon and I couldn't hear her on the other line I was freaking out that something had happened. And I texted her but didn't hear back and I had to go into this session for an hour not knowing what was going on. I just had to pray and trust. When I got out I saw that my mom texted me that HER dad was put in the hospital with a mild stroke. I was like you can't be serious, not both of my grandpas at the same time. Please Lord, no. I could get texts to go through but not phone calls so it was a lot of scattered details and I basically had to wait until I got home Sunday afternoon to figure out what was going on. Talk about having to trust the Lord. My friend Amanda reminded me that obviously God had me at this retreat for a reason while all of this was going on.

Thankfully my little sister and her husband had already planned to come down to Houston that weekend for my sister's birthday so my mom didn't have to be alone all weekend. They actually live in OK about 30ish minutes from my grandparents so they went back on Monday and went to visit my grandparents. My grandma would not leave grandpa's side. She slept in the hospital every night until he was released. Have I mentioned yet that August is their 73rd anniversary? True story. Here is a picture of all of us from their 70th anniversary party:



On Thursday my grandpa was released from the hospital and put in a nursing home for skilled care to have physical therapy to get stronger because he is very weak. My grandma was moved into assisted living because she cannot live home alone anymore after this. My grandparents have lived in the same house for over 60 YEARS. Together. They were separated for the first time which was the most heartbreaking thing for the entire family. My dad spent the next few nights with my grandpa in the nursing home and one of their other relatives spent a couple nights with grandma in assisted living so she wouldn't be alone at first. Grandpa did really good with his exercizes on Friday and his mind is so clear and he is anxious to be reunited with grandma.

When me, my mom, my older sister Sarah and her family arrived on Saturday we went straight to see Grandma first. It was heartbreaking just knowing grandma wasn't at home, that she was apart from grandpa, and then to see that she was upset about the whole situation. We left there and took her with us to go see grandpa all together with my other 2 sisters and other brother in law. I just cried the whole way there, the reality of it all hit me.

Once we got to the nursing home grandma just lit up. She was more herself and in better spirits being with grandpa. It was so good for my heart and so good and so healthy for both of them to see that the other was okay. I think it really motivated grandma to know that she was going to have to make the best of it. Our hope is that within 30 days grandpa will be strong enough to move in with grandma in assisted living. You can read my sister Allison's take on that day in her blogpost below:

http://sayingthingsoutloud.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/shadow/

Here are some of my favorite things my grandparents said on that couple of hours when we were all together:

Grandpa: I would've combed my hair but I didn't have time

Grandma to my nieces: Grandpa loves little girls!
Grandpa: I love big girls too (he looked right at me and my sisters when he said that and I wanted to burst into tears)

Grandma: Without the Lord you don't have anything. He has gotten us through so much and been so good to us.

Grandma: Well we're just the last of the Mohicans!

We helped grandma the rest of the day get settled in and bring her everything she needed including lots of pictures, their bright orange bedroom furniture, their really old glass lamp with flowers on it, and her turquoise phone. We set up that room with room for grandpa including both of their recliners just waiting for him to arrive.