Her arm’s gotta be tired, I think as I turn from the sweet carnage and mayhem that is District 9 to check on…my 84-year-old grandmother.
“Are you OK?” she asks me wide eyed. “Yes,” I chuckle and turn back to the sweet carnage.
Hey, don’t dog me for taking Gram to see District 9. It was her idea! Hey, she took me to the premiere of Jaws. I was 10 years old. Remember that opening scene, when the girl gets eaten by the shark? I still can't swim in the ocean.
And Gram made my mom take her to see Inglorious Basterds. Gram said she could not make heads or tails of the Jewish revenge fantasy epic. My mom was left speechless by Queinten Tarantino's violent imagery.
“I didn’t really notice much,” Gram said when I asked about the movie. Um…they depicted the scalping of a man. Knife to scalp, cutting and peeling the head past the fat meat.
What does this have to do with sarcoidosis? Plenty. I have cleaned my grandmother’s apartment and taken her to a doctor’s appointment and the movies. I have taken her to dinner and lunch. She lives 50 miles away and I have driven some 700 miles to see her since I moved home six weeks ago.
Six weeks ago, I could not have done any of this stuff without breaks to catch my breath and a long nap. But I am exercising every day to help my heart and lungs. I will have tangible proof of my health status in two weeks when I go to see my new cardiologist. The specter of a defibrillator implant still hovers over my head. But I am expecting to see improvements. I feel better. My clothes fit better. I move better, stand taller. Prednisone and methotrexate be damned, but they are doing the job of keeping symptoms at bay. I still want off, though. Still too many side effects.
To get well and maintain wellness, I am eating right, breaking a sweat while walking trails in the Pine Barrens and (moderately) pumping iron, trying to keep stress at bay. I am also being kept buoyant by the unconditional love of my family.
As recently as six weeks ago, I could not go a whole day without a long nap. Now I can’t catch a nap with a rod and reel. And I am thankful.
My mother visits my Gram every week and takes her shopping, to dinner, movies. My Uncle John, same thing. I am glad I can help. I know I am supposed to be resting, but reconnecting to family is very important to me and anything I can contribute, I’m going to do it. When I was a kid in the late ‘60s early ‘70s, my Gram would take my brother Todd and I everywhere. She’d take us shopping along Broad Street (Yo! Anyone remember the old Fanny Farmer’s candy store on East Broad Street in Elizabeth, N.J?! Chocolate cigars!). We walked everywhere. Back then it was hard for my little legs to keep up with Gram. She is a short woman, but man could she step. The steps come much slower now and they are unsteady, so I let her lean on me.
She knows I am sick and tells me to pace myself. I remind her to do the same thing.
She helped raise me so I will be there for her until the end.
…I'm just saying…
Note to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady: After the Patriots traded all-pro defensive tackle Richard Seymour to the Oakland Raiders, you described pro football as “unconditional love.” Unconditional love is when you love someone so much that you stick with them through thick and th
in. You don’t trade or discard them because you can get a younger , cheaper version of the person.What the Patriots did to Seymour is happening to a lot of American workers. No Fun League players have a union and contracts, but most of their money is not guaranteed and they are treated as well as regular, old at-will employees. Ain't no love there. Just Ask Brett Favre…and ask yourself when a younger QB with a strong arm is nipping at your heels during a training camp in your future…I'm just saying.
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Wow! Your grandma is quite a woman to have been able to watch D-9.
ReplyDeleteI was describing it to a friend who plays a lot of video games and said it was realistic violence. "How so?" I then compared it to the opening moments of Saving Private Ryan, but even more realistic.
Yikes.
It was a hard movie to decompress from and think about. Obviously a story about race and apartheid and parental love. Hard to process... Very violent.
Yes, Pat, Gram is hardcore. We also discussed the bigger themes of racism and parental love as they related to the movie. She's a thinker, too, not just a blood-and-guts fan.
ReplyDeleteShe sure does love movie carnage, though...;) Thanks for writing, my friend. - David