Mark of Time

We measure time by events that happen as a group. We graduate college together, then we get invitation to weddings, to baby showers and, eventually, to those baby's graduations and weddings. Those are the happy (or bittersweet) ways we mark off time. There are other, sadder, ways.

The time now is that of grandparents dying. I have several friends who grandparents have died recently, and Scott's grandfather and grandmother are not doing well, either. A few weeks ago, I found out my grandmother had a bad fall and broke several bones, sending her to the hospital.

She's not in rehab and, I think, doing better. But, as we know with old people, once a major fall like this happens, it doesn't take much to topple to apple cart again. I have a sinking feeling that this could be the beginning of the end.

It's sad because she's my last grandparent. Both my grandfather died when I was two, and my other grandmother died when I was in college. But she was much older - 99 years old - so it was somewhat expected. And I wasn't as close with her as I am with this grandmother.

I guess that's how time marches on, and how it leaves its wake. Amidst the weddings and births also comes the deaths. It's strange to be at that point in our own lives where we see that exodus among ourselves and our friends.

I'm sure I'll be taking a trip to New York in the coming month to go see her and check up on Nanny. I'll keep you posted on her progress.