89 Years Old Back on the Farm Raising a Family {update on my grandfather}
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I just wanted to bring you all up to speed on my grandfather. I haven’t shared much about him over the summer as it’s been kind of tough writing about him. He celebrated his 89th birthday yesterday and the entire family got together on Sunday to celebrate. I think he was pretty confused at times because he told me if he was really 89, like everyone was saying, that would be really bad. You see, his world is all about 89 years old back on the farm raising a family. He doesn’t realize how old he really is and you will see in the video below when I said, “89 years old” he looked at me with a confused look and told me it was too strong. He gets his words mixed up. I think he meant to say, I told you he was older than he was.
My grandfather spends 98% of his time thinking he is back on the farm raising a family. I think he gets his childhood on the farm and himself raising a family on a farm, mixed up. Many times he jumbles together his life as a boy with his brother and life as a young father with his kids. It absolutely blows my mind he knows who I am still and for the most part, recognizes me. It must be the strangest feeling to have your past and present collide in your mind.
My grandfather seemed to really enjoy the entire family being there and while he kept looking for his brother Don (who died forever ago), he seemed to know we were there celebrating him.
I have been sharing many of my updates on my personal Facebook page (I make them public….you can find me at JessicaLarockBruno) Just click follow or send me a friend request and tell me you are a blog reader!!).
I am still updating and sharing on our Four Generations One Roof Facebook page so maybe if you follow both (personal and fan page), you may see an update . 😂
Our fan page, Four Generations One Roof on Facebook, barely gets shown in a users feed. Facebook has made it very difficult for pages to be seen in user feeds. They want users of fan pages to pay (a lot of $$) for pages to be seen so I found that my personal page works better. Although, Facebook seems to be messing around with that too. Isn’t Facebook suppose to be about people seeing what they want to see? Not making you PAY money to have your stuff seen? It’s such a bunch of BS ☹️
RELATED: Heaven Gained another angel, the passing of my gram.
Sadly when I was taking these pictures all I could think of was, will I be able to take pictures of him turning 90 years old. Will he still be with us? I guess you never know that about anyone though. You can be here today and gone tomorrow.
I try not to dwell on those kinds of things but sometimes, I can’t help it.
Another year in the book for my grandfather! It’s remarkable where he came from to where he is now. He grew up with 8 brothers and sisters and they were very poor.
He didn’t even have electricity when he was a kid and used an out-house as they didn’t have plumbing inside their house.
He only went through the 8th grade and started working on the family farm driving the work horses at age 8! Can you imagine an 8 year old now a days, working hard labor on a farm? My how times have changed.
He has lived a wonderful long life, not always an easy life but he made a living working multiple jobs while my dad and aunts were young and always provided a roof over their head and plenty of food on the table. Food was HUGE for he and my grandmother. Nothing went to waste.
Many times I wish he would just close his eyes and pass peacefully as his quality of life is not really that great right now. I am not sure if I will be writing a blog post in a year from now, wishing him a Happy 90th Birthday but time will tell. It’s all in Gods hands and what will be, will be.
Meet Jessica
What started as a hobby, Jessica’s blog now has millions of people visit yearly and while many of the projects and posts look and sound perfect, life hasn’t always been easy. Read Jessica’s story and how overcoming death, divorce and dementia was one of her biggest life lessons to date.
My mom died of alzheimers 3 years ago. I’m still in a state of shock at times. Can’t understand she was so vivacious and loved life, to being in a nursing home barely alive. She was 87. I love seeing your posts, your grandfather is so lucky to have you all. I am an only child. Had no one to help. Just keep talking to him and pray for peace. It’s hard but he’s a lucky guy to be surrounded with love ????. Praying for 90.
Hi Deb! I am sorry to hear about you mom <3 . It's so hard this stage of life as a loved one is aging and changing before your eyes. Thank you for your sweet comment and please stay in touch 😉
I love your grandpa and look forward to hearing news about him. I am 65 and miss my grandparents greatly as well as my parents. My mother died of Alzheimer’s and it was very hard to see. You grandpa is a very lucky man as are your kids. They will always remember these times with him.
As for facebook … enough said. They wanted us to use it and now when we do, not only do we have to see advertisements (which I understand) they want to manipulate what we see. I’m going over to subscribe to your personal page as I don’t always see what you post from this page.
Hi Vicki 🙂 Thank you for your sweet comment about my gramp. He has been a huge part of my life and it’s so crappy to watch him dwindle away. I am sorry about your grandparents and parents. My mom is 68 and has also lost both grandparents and her parents. I know she misses them too <3 . I was very lucky as a kid to have my great grandparents and grandparents as big parts of my life so I know what you mean by the awesome experience for kids. It's truly a different world now and my son always finds my stories from both his grandparents and great gramp (and my gram when she was alive) very fascinating. I just saw your request over on facebook and accepted!! 🙂
Oh, Jessica, what great photos! I LOVE hearing about your grandfather and how he is doing. I am sorry to hear that his worlds are colliding. I never knew anyone with Alzheimer’s personally except for my husband’s grandmother. She suffered for a little while with it and she died peacefully. Your family is beautiful and I wish you all the ease prayer can offer. Tell your grandpa I said “HAPPY BIRTHDAY’, even though he doesn’t know me from Adam.
Will do Jaunita!! So happy you stopped by and hope you are enjoying your weekend 🙂
Hi Jessica!
Thank you for the gramps update and happy birthday to him!
My 88 year old mother has dementia and i know how awful it is to watch. She is in her home with a live in caregiver and my sister lives next door. She still knows us but her reality is completely skewed. It’s often heartbreaking but i remind myself that growing old is a privilege denied to many.
It will be 3 years next week since we lost my beautiful 24 year old son. What i wouldn’t give to watch him grow older! His loss puts it all in perspective for me…..
Gena
OMG Gena I am so sorry to hear about your son! You are so right, growing old is a privilege. I actually never thought of it that way and you saying that, makes me feel better about watching my gramp. While it is horrible to watch and as much as I wish he wasn’t suffering, we are very lucky to have had him as long as we have. That is great your mom is able to still be at home in her surroundings. My grandfather got 10x worse when we had to put him in the nursing home. Once my gram passed last Thanksgiving eve, he had spiraled down hill even quicker. STay in touch and good luck with your mom 🙂
Jessica, thank you for sharing your Precious Grandpa’s Birthday with us. I am going to Friend you on Facebook so I can see your post. I was wondering why I haven’t seen any. I was Blessed to grow up around both sets of my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Wonderful Memories. Then seeing them one at a time with Alzheimer’s was very hard. I am praying for you and your family as you watch your sweet grandpa go through this. You are a Blessing to me as my mom is starting on this journey. ❤️???????? Cheryl.
Hi Cheryl!!! Thank you and yes, looking forward to seeing you on FB! I am sorry to hear about your mom. Just know you are not alone and be sure to take time for yourself and enlist help of other family members as the journey is one hell of a ride. Hang in there and thank you for stopping by.
Thanks for sharing that FB live. It was neat to see your grandfather and all the rest of your family. He did seem to enjoy it, even though he didn’t think he was really that old! It was cute when you were mentioning his favorite shirts and he agreed with you. He also enjoyed waving at you on the camera.
Thank you Brenda for stopping by and leaving a comment. He always enjoys hearing what people say , although I don’t think he really knows what my blog is anymore, he likes when I read him comments.
Awww Jessica, this makes me both smile, choke up & want to give you a big hug all at the same time.
My maternal grandfather went through the same thing. It is such a cruel thing sometimes ;(
He thought my mom was his wife (we think b/c he too thought time had done a major rewind & his actual wife in his eyes, liked way too old to be married to him- As far as he was concerned he was YOUNG!)
He developed a thing for red heads & had some crazy stories about his red head girlfriend & sometimes girlfriend(S)…Sound familiar?!? 😉
& he would be happy he got to see someone that had long ago passed; sad b/c someone was no longer around that either was right there next to him, or no longer with us…it varied.
But, the toughest part, was seeing him upset & emotional, often crying over things that were truly just in his head.
Despite how difficult the whole thing was for each of us, I was always happiest when he was happy. Regardless of what he thought about anything- right or wrong… it began to not matter nearly as much as him just being content.
My grandmother died 2 yrs before him (both on Thanksgiving-just those 2 yrs apart) & we never even told him. It just wasn’t worth upsetting him over something he wouldn’t remember in who knows how much time. (That too wasn’t easy for us, but it was the right choice for him. I still get a lump in my throat thinking about how that’s just not how you picture those things happening in life.)
Dimentia changes EVERYTHING. It messes w/the order of how things should be & go & it is so indiscriminating & cruel.
I see so much of those things w/your gramps & truly empathize w/you.
I’m often sending prayers your way for everyone. Hang in there & give yourself some grace as well. It is hard & there’s just no way of getting around that sometimes-
Big hug to you!
Yes the RED HEADS!!! ha. You remember that post 🙂 Thank you Crystal for your sweet words and encouragement . I am sorry you wen through this too. It’s absolutely crazy (no pun intended) the things he says, thinks and does. We don’t even talk about my gram as we don’t want to upset him either. Sometimes I still think is alive and then I quickly remember, she is gone. It’s such a weird feeling. My grandfather goes from looking for my gram (he can’t find her and gets upset, like she’s lost) to being Mr single man with the nurses. -ha.