I took a nap today and can’t sleep right now. I don’t know if the silence brings clarity to my thoughts or a dose of insomnia. Either way, I could sound profound or just plain crazy at times. I figure I’d make good use of this time and write something I’ve been thinking about the last couple of days – humanity.

Yesterday, I brought my husband’s grandfather, Bob, to his doctor’s appointment. Initially, I set up the appointment to go over his medication list and have his medication submitted to the local Wal-greens in Winter Garden, Florida. As I brought my two kids and an 86 year old man to his doctor’s office, it dawned on me the incredible difference between little kids who are 4 and 2 opposed to a 86 year old body trying to walk with a walker. My mind races with emotion as I watched how difficult it is for him to even get out of the mini-van and hold on to his walker.

Now let me back up a little, ole Bob is like the energizer bunny. He seriously keeps on ticking. The last few years he’s suffered some blows when it comes to his body giving out on him. Last year he nearly died on Adam, the girls, and me at Sonny’s BBQ in Clermont. Fortunately we were right next door to South Lake Hospital where the doctors discovered he has three major blocked arteries. And for those who don’t know what that means, our bodies have four. Granted, he’s 86 years old. Since then, his body hasn’t been functioning top speed. He was in the hospital for a week and in the rehab for a month until he checked into the assisted living home where he tried to escape the first two weeks. Again, he checked himself in there.

I’ll revert back to the doctor’s office visit. I sat there listening to his doctor, Dr. BC, talk to Granddad about his ailments and medications. Yet, I can’t help be selfish and think about my own health and future concerning the years ahead of me. I suddenly wanted to go running, swimming, and even become an Olympic athlete. I now heard the doctor say, “By not taking this medication, it affects your heart but helps your bleeding stop out the other end. What do you want to do?” And Granddad replies, “I want to go to the Lord.” I couldn’t help but think how certain he was about that.

He often complains about his body and not being able to breathe well. It takes a lot for him to just walk down the hall in his assisted living home. This man has had vans roll over him, survived a stroke, and blindness at one time. I can’t even name all of them. I seriously can’t complain about my inability to do anything physical as I sat next to him in the doctor’s office.

After the visit, we headed to Cracker Barrel for lunch. He commented on five Betties who look like the Golden Girls sitting right next to us. He said they were all widows keeping each company as he chimed in how lonely he is. I just told him to go over there to talk to them and he’d have five Cookies on one date. He chuckled and smiled. He said he started walking over to the other buidling at the assisted living home to go to church which is his extent of walking locally and daily social life.

As I dropped him off and watched him shuffling his feet, I thought about these precious moments together with his great granddaughters and me. I rarely think about his physical inability as I did yesterday. It just happened to be the day I took him to the doctor’s office.