Life's twists

It's a funny thing how life twists and turns. I'm not whining today, well not much. Sorry about not posting over the last few weeks, I started school and my grandfathers been dying, so my mother has been around. My grandfather died yesterday and his death brought to mind my thoughts on life and death and their relationship. We start dying the minute we are born and it is a part of the natural order of things but that doesn't mean that we are all stoic about such things. My sister and I often joke that we are emotionally broken, as our emotional responses are not quite as dramatic as many around us. It is interesting to see the myriad of emotions and reactions that people have to death. Yesterday at my grandfathers house we sat with my grandfather's wife, my step-grandmother if you will, and we remembered grandpa, we went through his papers, and he kept every piece of paper he ever got since he was born in 1921 til his death. I discovered my grandfather was an adventurous young man who surfed, a smart young man who graduated from high school with honours and then decided to forgo college to serve his country in the army. I met my grandfather yesterday and discovered another portion of my history. My grandfather was an interesting character and when I think of him I think of a gentleman who is always well put together, his outfit always set off by a matching hat. I remember that he smoked for as long as I knew him and longer still than that. He drank like a fish. He was a loving father and grandfather. He was married twice and had seven step-children but they were all his children. I remember my grandpa. I think that just this summer he was as vibrant as ever, he helped my uncle tile his kitchen. Grandpa has 8 children, 14 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. His was a life well lived and a life well spent. I think that those 86 years were good years. the last three weeks were hard to watch and in all honesty I didn't watch too closely, I saw him on my days off from work once a week, this week he died before i got there. The man that lay in the bed was not my grandpa, but a shell of the man I knew, the last day I saw my grandfather I was sad to see a man in pain unable to express his hurt, the circulation in his hands was so bad they were black, I am not one to sit in a place and watch someone suffer knowing I have no way of helping, I must say that I am happy that he went my only sadness is that he did not go before he had to suffer and his family had to watch.

Anyway maybe a week before grandpa died he was moved to hospice at, Augustina Lutheran Nursing Home, they cared for him and they did an excellent job. My grandfather died at 9:40 am on Sunday. On Sunday afternoon the undertaker went to collect the body from the hospital across the street since the nursing home does not have a morgue, they were told that the body was not there. After several hours of back and forthing, my mother and cousin drove to the hospital and again had to go back and forth from the hospice to the nursing home trying to figure out where my grandfathers body was. It turns out the body was at the morgue in the hospital but the paperwork was still in the hospital, however my cousin had to get on the phone with her father, a retired new york city judge, and my mother had to make a fuss in order for anything to be done. No one wanted to take responsibility for what went wrong, neither the head nurse at the hospital nor the one at the nursing home would step up.

The only other thing I may want to mention is that we really need to make sure that we are covered as far as life insurance is concerned. My grandfather had two policies and combined they still weren't enough to cover his burial expenses.

I just wanted to mention that i am not callous and that if my grandfather had been a young man I would have been much more touched.
having said that I would like to express my great sadness at the loss of a great actor, Heath Ledger. Heath Ledger had so much to live for. he had so much more to give and so much potential. I remember him in the teen movie 10 Things I Hate About You. I thought he was so cute and i enjoyed the movie, I will never forget that scene when he was coming down the stairs singing You're Just too good to be true. I also must add that the movie was based off of The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. A radio personality in New York said that Heath ledger's death was insignificant and that nobody in the black community cared, she was wrong. She went further to say that no one would remember him as anything more than a gay cowboy. Anytime someone dies it affects us all, but someone in the spotlight so youngs death should never be counted as insignificant.