Grandparents Day!

While on our "road trip" we went down to Henderson, KY to visit with my grandparents, Frank and Boots. They have been married for 67 years. Wrap your brain around that. Mamaw had a stroke this last year and is paralyzed on one side, but she is doing pretty good considering. Because of the stroke she had to go to the nursing home to receive care. She goes to dialysis every week to keep her kidneys functioning. It is rare, but the nursing home has allowed Bampy to be with her in the same room. So now they are side by side in their tiny little room. What is so sweet to me is that above Bampy's bed, on his wall and on his dresser are pictures of my beautiful grandmother. Look closely and you'll see that she was truly a beauty. She still is. My grandfather is legally blind. He can see enough to get around without walking into things, but he can't read, watch television, or look at photos. And yet, there on his wall are pictures of Mamaw. He will come over to her bed and lean far over and kiss her again and again. Not just little sweet kisses, but lingering ones as well. She will kiss him back and run her one good hand through his hair and mess it up. Then she will jokingly say, "that's all you get". After 67 years she still drives him crazy. I don't know what will happen when she passes. I think that he will die of a broken heart. How can someone love another person for that long, with that much passion, and then go on without them when they are gone? I hope that I never have to find out. What blesses me the most is that I think that Jeff loves me the same way my grandfather loves my grandmother. I think that when we are old he will still be kissing me. He loves to kiss me. It is a good reminder to me when I'm busy doing something and he comes in and wants to kiss me, that I need to stop and cherish that moment. I don't know if we will have 67 years. I'm guessing not since we got married later in our lives and my grandparents were 19 when they got married.

Jack was very tired while we were there but they both held him and kissed him and loved on him, even in his crankiness. We took pictures, knowing that he will most likely not remember them. But I will tell him about them, and I will tell him about how much they loved each other. Maybe he will see it through Jeff and I. I hope so.