My Corner for Education

I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. However, the old energetic granny (Let’s call her Grammy H.)  who was sharing the hospital room with me had a severe hearing problem. People literally had to scream to her ears all the time to communicate with her. I was forced to watch the whole charade in the room. Grammy H could not remember her nurse’s name, either. In fact, she had repeatedly asked the same nurse about her name and where she lived whenever she came in to check on her. I finally had a chuckle and exchanged the look with the nurse. Oh, my my!

Grammy H had her whole family come in and out of the hospital room to visit her everyday. They all spoke so loud that I was forced to take in whatever they discussed in the room. Heck, I had no choice but to listen to her whole family drama during my four-day stay at the hospital. What can we say? When you share a room with a patient like Grammy H, you really have no choice but to live with it. So, I might as well write it down for my blog, and this is how it happened.

Grammy H came into the hospital because she had an earache and an accidental fall at home. Grammy H was almost 91 years old and living with one of her grandsons, Junior. Junior apparently was the main caretaker for her because he was living with her due to his job location in town. In fact, from all the conversations I’d heard, I believe he was the only one, of all people, who truly cared about Grammy H. I got to talk to him and his father when they came in to visit her. The way Junior talked to Grammy H was so genuine and appeared to have no condition attached, which was very different from the other family members of hers.

Grammy’s other family members came in to visit her as well, and they all wanted something from her. The daughter kept pressuring Grammy to sign a paper to state that she would not wish to move out of her home after her discharge from the hospital. She also brought her children in to pressure Grammy to sign the paper. Their reason was that they did not want Grammy to move out of the house. Apparently, Grammy lived in a big house with Junior, and she loved her house and garden. They told Grammy that if she did not sign the paper, they (the hospital doctors and her son) would put her in a nursing care or take her away to a farm.

Grammy wanted to stay in her house, but she also knew that her daughter had a different reason for wanting her to stay in the big house. Grammy told her brothers and other relatives that her daughter just wanted to have the access to her house and her property. From what I had heard, Grammy H just wanted to go home with Junior, her beloved grandson from her son’s side. She believed that Junior would take care of her because he was the only one who cared about her.

Grammy’s son, Junior’s father, who lived out of town on a farm, was the power of attorney for Grammy. He was in charge of making decisions for her placement. There was a chance that the hospital could not send Grammy home but to find a nursing home for her because she kept falling off the bed at night. In fact, it happened twice while she was in the room with me. (Put it this way, I didn't have any rest when I was in the room with Grammy.) Grammy H’s son and daughter did not get along at all. If Grammy moved out of her house to live with her son, the daughter wouldn’t have any easy access to her and her big house anymore. One day, I actually witnessed the siblings, brother and sister, had a big argument in the hallway outside the guest waiting room. Grammy’s daughter kept yelling at her own brother and saying that she would hire a lawyer to fight to keep Grammy in town.

Grammy H’s daughter also pressured her about her estate while I was present in the room.  Grammy H was quite lively and seemed to be quite sharp whenever the daughter was asking about her house and her will. Grammy H would tell her that her lawyer would take care of it, and she would like to leave something to Junior, who truly took good care of her. From the conversations Grammy H had with her frequent visitors, I sensed that her daughter was a “wild one” at one time. Anyway, as an outsider and unwilling witness, I was simply annoyed that people had the nerve to fight over their “inheritance” in public while the loved one was still alive and kicking.

It is interesting that greed can turn family against each other. Sometimes, poor decisions made in the will could bring the deceased from the grave to manipulate the family. On the last day of my hospital stay, Grammy H found out she had a tumor in her brain. I felt very sorry for her and Junior. I saw Junior secretly shed his tears when he heard of the news. I personally think he is a nice man, a kind and gentle man. (I don't think he is interested in women though. Hehehe....) I wish both Junior and Grammy H the best of luck.