When the topic of my grandfather and his care comes up at school, or among my acquaintances, I always overreact. I am no longer the ten-year-old child who witnessed the terrible accident when my grandfather lost the ability to walk; now I am a sixteen-year-old boy and I know what I want out of my life. I know exactly who I should be friends with, how I should pass this or that subject, and how to take care of my lying grandfather.
Teachers and my friends often treat my old man with some kind of disdain, thinking that he takes up too much space in my life, and that as a teenager with prospects of entering programming, I should not spend so much time at Grandpa’s bedside. But no one understands that I do this not so much because Mom and Dad are always at work and someone has to feed, wash, and entertain Grandpa, as because of our time with him.
My grandfather was always an interesting and amazing person. He used to build houses in our town, and he could list the names of all the streets and plot a route from one point to another as well as Google Maps. In addition, thanks to my grandfather I read a lot of books since childhood, and he always helped me a lot with my homework, sitting with me for hours in the kitchen and explaining rules to me that because of abstruse words I could not understand myself. And even after an accident confined him to his bed, he was no less curious to me. He’s always fun and interesting to me, and the routine of treating bedsores and accidentally spilling soup and drinks on the bed is just a trifle.
I sometimes think about how old Grandpa is and come to a question that really bothers me: “How much longer can I listen to his stories, discuss books and studies with him, and just sit next to him while he sleeps, whistling from behind a stuffy nose?”
This is what makes me emotional and angry when my teachers tell me I should have stayed late for the event because my grandpa isn’t going anywhere and will wait, and my friends think their company is much better than Grandpa’s. No one understands that my family and I don’t consider him a burden at all to carry as much as time allows, he is a ray of sunshine for our family. Both Mom and Dad can attest to that, and so can I.
