Finally Spoke To Grandmother

Look, I've felt guilty for a long time that I have not spoken to Grandmother.  I have thrown many obstacles in the way of doing that -- I'm too busy, the language barrier, the time difference, I forgot, work, blah-blah-blah.  But in early November my sister said that Grandmother told her she misses me and wants to speak with her.  And that stayed with me.

It took a long while -- I downloaded Skype just before my sis told me that now her daughter-in-law/caretaker prefers us to call instead of Skype, which meant I needed to get a phone card and that took some time because I am very, very busy -- but I finally got around to a Wal-Mart on Wednesday to buy a card (a recommendation made by my shrink -- I didn't know Wal-Mart had phone cards!) and, very early Saturday morning, I called Grandmother.  After a lot of hectoring from the woman I spoke to -- "Grandmother, your grandson wants to talk to you!!!" I heard after she put the phone down -- she came to the phone.

It wasn't anything long or heart-rending, about 2 1/2 minutes at the most.  It was a quick and simple "Hi, how are you doing?  How are you?  How are the parents?" kind of thing.  She wanted me to speak up, but that may have been less her and more the crappy landline I was using.  What was most important to me, and what, deep down, was a reason I haven't tried to call her in so long, is that she at least recognized who I was.  And she did.  I don't know, but maybe she isn't having dementia after all.  Maybe it's all those sleeping pills that made her loopy and erratic.  She says that she's sleeping better now, but I don't know if that is with or without chemical aides.

So my worst fears were not realized.  Even better, I now have gotten over myself so I can talk to her, even for only minutes at a time.  I am going to pray that nothing else weird happens, and I will call her some time in the next week.  And then on, thereafter, for the rest of our lives.  Because she's my Grandmother, and I love her.