The Haps 'round these parts...

Chris got a call Monday evening from his brother.  Mike said that Grandma had been found (by Dad) unresponsive in her home.  Her heart was beating and she was breathing but otherwise unresponsive.  So Dad called an ambulance and had her rushed to the hospital.  She was given a CT scan and admitted to ICU.  The problem is that nobody knows what happened.  Chris went to see her Tuesday night and she was awake and responsive but still confused.

As you can imagine we're all worried.

I did a lot of thinking while I was in North Carolina about These Women in our lives.  Chris has 2 grandmothers and a great-grandmother still living.  I have one grandmother.  The Boy has both of his grandmothers, 3 great-grandmothers, and a lovely great-aunt (she may as well be another grandma to him), and a great-great-grandmother .  I was thinking of how we seem to be surrounded by these very different, very lively, very lovely older women, and it seems like the Boy will likewise be surrounded by different, lively and lovely women as he grows up. 

It is a great blessing, but it's a blessing that carries its own sadness as we have come to realize this week.  We get to have these women as a part of our lives, we get to listen to their stories and laugh with them.  We get to share in their knowledge and learn from their regrets.  But we also have to watch as they grow older little bit by little bit.  We watch carefully where they step, all the while making conversation so that they don't notice that we're watching where they step.  We have to live in the moment while planning (and worrying) for the future.

We invest our hearts in These Women all the while knowing that at some point their bodies will wear out and our hearts will break as we have to let them go.  And in that moment we come to realize that at some point we ourselves become one of These Women, one of the older ones that people worry and fret over. 

It is a great blessing.  But one silver-lined with sorrow.