As I have been reading through various postings, one memory after another has been resurfacing.
One of the memories is of my maternal Ngrandfather, (my Nmother's father). For years, he would refuse to use the telephone and I have no idea why. One day, back in 1973, I was home alone when the phone rang. When I answered, it was my Ngrandfather frantically asking for help! I knew something had to be radically wrong for him to do anything as desperate as (a) telephone anyone and (b) ask for help. My Nmother and I got to his house where he and my Naunt lived and discovered that my Naunt had fallen and badly injured her ankle. I advised everyone that it should be X-rayed to make sure nothing was broken. My Naunt agreed to go to the emergency room and my Nmom stated she would accompany her. However, Ngrandfather adamantly refused to go with us to the hospital and we could not leave him alone! This meant calling an ambulance to transport Naunt and Nmom to the ER while I stayed and "babysat" Ngrandfather.
During the time we were waiting Naunt's and Nmom's return, Ngrandfather kept whining "What if the hospital admits her? Who's going to take care of ME?!?!?" Absolutely NO expression of concern about his daughter's health or wellbeing. I finally lost my temper and told him to "SHUT THE !@#$ UP! You're not a baby! If you need to get something in the house, get it yourself!!!!" I then went on to tell him that hospitals don't admit people unless they are SEVERELY ill or injured and that when Naunt returned home, she will need to STAY OFF HER INJURED ANKLE! I warned him that if I found out that he forced her to get up and wait on him while he sat on his behind, I was going to come back to the house and knock the daylights out him! The look on his face could be described as "deer in the headlights". However, he did start puttering around the house and getting stuff he thought he needed for himself without me enabling him.
A few days later, when I came home from work, Nmom was on the phone with Naunt and I was receiving strange looks. When Nmom got off the phone, she asked me what did I do to Ngrandfather? I asked why? What's so significant? She told me that for the first time in family memory, my Ngrandfather was BEHAVING himself and waiting on Naunt hand and foot!!!!!
In one sense it's funny and in another sense it's sort of pathetic.
Bones
