2.6-3

My Grandmother’s birthday is coming up this month. I know this is a difficult time of year for her, both her and my grandfather (who has passed away) have birthdays this month and it is the month of their anniversary. No other family lives even in the same state as she does and I know she gets lonely. My family loves each other very deeply and we miss one another but we are HORRIBLE about keeping in touch (on a [semi] regular basis). Most of us have Facebook now which is nice to get to see pictures and posts but it is not the same as a letter or a phone call. I am guilty of not reaching out to my family as often as I should, especially my grandparents. I always had a special relationship with them because I was the only grandchild to grow up around them (for 5/6 yrs anyway) and they would watch me while my mom worked late nights or had late night classes. I feel so guilty about it yet year after year it doesn’t change, we’re all like that. I know we are all spread out over the country and we all have our own busy lives but we just can’t seem to keep in touch the way we should. Why is this? Sometimes it’s almost infuriating because we all say we will and never do, again I am guilty of it too. It’s so weird because we really do love each other so much and when we do get together they are some of the best memories and we all hate to leave, so again why can’t we get our shit together and call one another every now and then.

 This took a very different turn from where I had originally thought. I know my grandma is lonely and I hate that for her. It’s is hard to make it up to visit her due to time, money, work, school, etc. I hate that my grandpa is gone. He was really and truly the kindest, gentlest, sweetest soul. This world needs more people like him. He used to have a saying that he would always tell us grandkids “out of all the grandkids named (fill in name) you’re my favorite”, mind you there are no grandkids with the same name. I miss his hugs. He hugged with such vigor yet it was as gentle as an angel. He had a great laugh too; more like a chuckle which is funny because most people knew him as Chuck (his real name is Charles).

The reason I am think about them is that my Aunt reached out to some of us, ironically via Facebook, to see if we could all make an extra effort to call or send her a card or pictures. All I know is that I’ve got to make this happen. Funerals shouldn’t be the only time we see or (really) talk to family, especially when we love each other so dearly. This again did not go as I thought in terms of writing but sometimes it takes calling ourselves out to “get it”.