Granddad

[tinyjo]

So, I got a text from my Mum before the gig started on Thursday to say that my Granddad had gone into hospital and was in a bad way. I think it's some kind of chest infection or something like that. Anyway, I rang her yesterday and offered to meet her at the hospital for the visit.

He's very very skinny and frail looking. Apparently, he's also making trouble. They've taken his dentures out because he bit through his drip line for some reason. He kept fussing at the blankets and at his hand (where there's one of those tube things for giving injections) while we were there. I think he's trying to get up and have a fag, probably. He was being mean to the nurse as well, trying to push her away when she was trying to feed him and give him medication. It was just really sad. They don't know if he'll be coming out again, to be honest. He's very old and he's already been in several times this year. Even if he does recover, he won't be able to go back to his current place, which is a residential home - he'll need a nursing home.

Gah. I think I'd prefer to just die at the first heart attack rather than dragging on and on - none of my grandparents has enjoyed their declining years.

Comments

[shepline.livejournal.com]

If I get v. poorly when I'm old I don't want anyone to do anything heroic for me. Just let me go. Why prolong my agony? I know my parents feel the same way. If they're honest, probably so do most people...

*hugs*

[percyprune.livejournal.com]

I'm friends with a man named John, who was a Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot--a genuine war hero who appears in history books and everything. He's 85 now and not in the best of health. It's actually very sad to go see him at his home in Southport. He's outlived two wives, his friends and enemies (and he had plenty of enemies) and lives a rather lonely existence, desperate for company.

He's also quite a spiky character, which makes him hard to take for long, but that hard-nosed fighting attitude may have been what has preserved him for so long. His faculties are failing but he's battling it every inch of the way. I kind of hope I keep my wits until I'm old, but I'm not so sure I'd want to do so against a background of physical decline and decrepitude.