98 and Counting

My grandmother, or Nanie as she is known to most, is 98-years-old. She lives in her own house and takes care of herself and that house still to this day. My grandfather died before I was born. For a while she had a boarder, a man from Canada named Jean. As children, we adored Jean. Looking back, it's rather surprising that he wasn't a child molester. After all, he worked as a janitor at the elementary school and he was an unmarried bachelor living with an elderly woman. We didn't find that at all weird. All we knew was that he was an excellent ice skater and he always had sucking candies in his pockets (another red flag, but whatever!) and when we saw him sweeping the floors at school, we would think nothing of running over to give him a big hug and a kiss. At one point, I think Jean proposed to my grandmother. My father and uncle both were adamantly against this and thought he was just looking to get her house. My grandmother is old-fashioned and would never marry again anyway, so she said "no". Eventually, Jean moved out and ended up marrying an older, sickly woman back somewhere outside of New York. Maybe my father was right about his motives after all.

Now, back to Nanie. She has really been lucky, healthwise, her entire life. I think the only time I have known her to be in the hospital was when she had her appendix out. Lately she has become a bit lightheaded and passed out a few times over the last year. But the thing about Nanie is, she will go out and trim her hedges or mow her lawn and won't drink water for fear of having to use the bathroom when she is not in her house, so it's no surprise to me that she has lost consciousness once or twice. Luckily, many family members live right down the street from Nanie, so help is never too far away.

I don't know where I am going with this one. Nothing witty or pertinent to share. I just saw Nanie this weekend, and thought "man, she's looking old." What the hell did I expect!!!??? She's 98 for crying out loud. But it still made me wish she had someone like Jean sharing her home to fill her days with small-talk and company.