A Tale to Tell

2-17-09

Larry called me this morning and said “I want to tell you about your wonderful son.”

[Time out for a bit of background: I have been in Texas for five days now. Saturday, February 14th, my nephew, Paul Graff married his sweetheart, Carly, in the San Antonio Temple. This meant that Larry, Ian and Daniel were home taking care of Grandma Mary. We know that she cannot be at home by herself any more. She is not stable on her feet and needs constant attention. So Ian stayed home from school on Thursday, Larry does not work on Fridays, the weekend everyone is home and there was no school Monday for President’s Day. My good friend, Patty Stewart, agreed to come stay with her while the boys are at school on Tuesday and Wednesday. ]

Monday afternoon G’ma lost her balance, fell backward and hit the back of her head on the entertainment center. This left her with a gash on her crown. I got a panicked call from Ian asking what he should do. They had already applied pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding, but hadn’t gotten her up yet. Larry was due home from work any minute. Rick called on the house phone to talk to Grandma while I spoke with Ian on his cell phone. We determined that it was safe to get her up and the boys put her in the transport chair. Larry didn’t even get out of the car when he got home. They loaded Grandma (who will be 88 years old in a couple of days) into the car and took her to the doctors to get stitches. The wound was 2 inches long and 3/8 inch deep. Owwww.

They got dinner and came home. Grandma was doing OK. Larry offered to put her to bed at 9 PM, but she said she wasn’t tired. The boys put her to bed when they went one hour later. She was up at midnight and the boys put her back to bed. Again at 2 AM she was trying to get up again.

[More background information: The Saturday before I left, Mary suffered a stroke. She was weak on the right side of her body and her speech was slurred. It was almost impossible to communicate with her. Sunday she was not much better. Her daughter, Sue, came to visit her. She was going to be out of the country for a month and wanted to see her mom for her birthday. I stayed home from church with her; she was not in any shape to go. We just stayed and visited with Sue. Larry made arrangements with another Elder to come and help him give her a blessing.

Priesthood blessings are amazing things. Monday morning Grandma woke up in better shape than she had been in quite a long time. There was a question if I was going to be able to leave for Texas. Because she was doing so well, we decided that it would be all right if Lauren and I went ahead with our plans. Unfortunately, she started to deteriorate by the end of the week. Her cognitive and speech capacity got worse. She fell several times a night. She gets up out of bed when everyone is asleep; I think she is sleep walking. She has questionable balance during the day when she is awake, in the middle of the night it is almost a given that she will fall. She is one blessed woman with an over-worked guardian angel. She has only gotten bruises and the boys miraculously wake up to hear her cries and then help her off the floor and back into bed. One night she walked outside, in her bare feet, in freezing weather and fell. I am sure that her angel woke Ian up so he could help her.]

This is where Larry’s admiration and awe starts. Not to diminish all the heroic efforts the boys have exhibited since I have been gone, for they have been up and beyond the call of duty. I never anticipated that it would be so hard for them.

Now it is 3 AM and Grandma is again trying to get out of bed. Daniel went into the living room, pulled the cushions off the couch and made a bed for himself on the floor next to Grandma’s bed. He remained with her for the rest of the night, staying her when she wanted to get up, comforting her when she needed it. He would hold her hand or put his hand on her leg so she knew she was not alone. At 4 AM, Ian went to sleep in my bed because hearing Daniel and Grandma talk was keeping him awake. Ian only got one more hour of sleep before it was time to get up and get ready for seminary. He went to school; Daniel had no sleep so he stayed home. Larry called me from work to tell me this story.

I want to publicly express my gratitude, love and admiration for Ian (16 almost 17 years old) and Daniel (14 years old). They are amazing boys. Cheerful, obedient, helpful and loyal- not to mention clever, funny and good looking. I am proud of them. They are valiant and keep their covenants. They honor their priesthood and fulfill their responsibilities. They do the hard stuff- and taking care of Grandma is hard. We are very honored to have them in our family, I am one blessed momma!