Remembering Grandpa T

Last Saturday, my husband Matt called his sister to see if she wanted to get together since we hadn't seen her in a long time. She mentioned that his Grandpa in Ontario had passed away that day.

His grandpa was 94 years old and suffering from dementia. His grandma had recently made the decision to put him into a nursing home because he had a hard time even knowing what time of day it was. He would wake up at 1am thinking it was lunchtime and turn on the stove to cook. Not the safest thing for someone with trouble remembering to do.

My parents were nice enough to buy all 3 of us plane tickets last May so we went to visit them. We had always wanted to, but could never afford the $3000+ for plane tickets. We had such a nice visit with them. I had never met either of them before because they had always been too ill and elderly to fly. His grandma was such a sweet little lady. As soon as we stepped in the door she was offering us cake and tea! His grandpa was also a very nice man- full of stories from his past and love for his great grandaughter. He kept insisting that she take things of theirs that she showed interest in home, like a magnifying glass with a light in it! We had to keep reminding him who Ceili was, but he admired her so much. He kept saying "who is that sweet little girl?". I'll never forget the moment when Ceili stopped being so standoffish with him and they started driving toy cars up and down eacother's arms and laughing. It was precious!

Sadly, his day came and I'm sure Grandma T is very heartbroken as are we. They were the love of eachother's lives, they knew eacother from the time they were children. I had lost all of my grandparents before I even met Matt. He is lucky to have had his grandpa in his life for 33 years and I know that he realizes that too.