What a Weekend: Chapter Two

So, this has taken a bit of time to process, I guess. The rest of my weekend was full of family and celebrating and whatnot, but my grandpa had an accident early in the celebrating. Last Thursday night, he fell and broke his shoulder. He was sure it wasn't much, but when they called his doctor, they urged them to get to the emergency room and have it checked out. Sure enough, he'd fractured it. But on top of that, his blood sugar was admit-him-NOW high. He's diabetic and other factors in his health, I guess, had caused it to go up. To shorten the very long story, he had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days and missed out on the big dinner we had put together to celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. He did make it to the get-together at their park's clubhouse and got to see everyone, but it was disappointing to them (to say the least) to have him miss such a big part of the event. That said, things are pretty bad for him, health-wise. My mom and her brothers moved my grandparents into her house for now. Chris hooked up my grandpa with a lift chair to help him get up and down. And we've generally made light of it all as much as possible; Joe got him a cowbell from Chick-fil-a (to ring when he needs some service), Jon convinced him to grow out his beard just for fun (since he can't shave anyway), and my dad got him a walking stick. Some told him he would look like Moses, but I told him all he was missing was a change cup and he could be a hobo.
All kidding aside, it was an extremely difficult weekend. This kind of change is difficult to deal with and relationships that are strained already often falter under the pressure of preserving one's parents' dignity as they age and providing them the best possible situation while trying to afford them the independence that they really want. I won't say the transition is coming about without conflict. I won't say that all exchanges this weekend were pleasant. And I also won't say, on a personal level, that I enjoy people who come with caveats: (I am completely going to make this up since I don't know which relatives my mother may have passed my blog address to.....) This is Aunt So-and-so - don't talk to her about politics; This is Cousin Somebody-or-another - don't bring up her ex-husband! Anyway, you get what I'm saying, right?
As much fun as it is to see relatives and extended family, there are stresses involved and the tension is heightened by pivotal life moments like what happened with my grandparents. Weddings also work that way.
So I'm tired.
I'm hanging in there, but I'm tired.
I have put off a lot of end-of-school, start-of-summer paperwork and financial crap in favor of visiting with family that I must now face.
And I'm too tired to do it.
I'm sure this is nothing that a good night's sleep won't cure, and I'm sure that once I process what all has happened over this weekend, I will feel much better. I'm also sure that, sometime when I'm at home (using my own computer and not pretending to be busy at work....), I'll post a couple of photos from the family get-together. Lots of good times were had, and I think I'd like to look at those photos and try to focus on that stuff instead.

DAILY BLISS: a surprise run to Starbucks and watching the DVD that Emma's teacher put together and personalized for her, summing up her 1st grade year (sweet, sweet, tear-inducing sweet)