It was around midnight when I first heard the news. I was awoken by the noise in the living room. I saw my mom crying and my father hugging her. My parents received a phone call from the hospital stating that my grandfather had just passed away. At that time I just could not believe it. We knew this would eventually happen, but still we felt the disbelief and loss in our hearts that he was taken from us so suddenly.
My grandfather was a plump and cheerful old man who liked to give gifts or food to his grandchildren, including me. He retired from work at sixty two and lived in a nice little home with my grandma. Unfortunately, at sixty nine my grandma passed way because of malicious cancer. Since then, his health seemed to decline and my parents decided to take care of him. He moved to our house so that someone can watch over him. He faced illness after illness. The last illness, stroke made him have to use a wheelchair and I often walked with him in the park and helped to push his wheelchair. I knew him much better since I helped to push his wheelchair. We often talked together. Sometimes he talked about his past, sometimes I talked about school and life.
Although he could not walk anymore and had a lot of illness, he was still joyful and smiling in his daily life. I asked him why. He said that you had to see everything from the positive side. He said that he was lucky to be able to live until now and talk to his grandchildren. Many people were not given that chance. I wonder if everyone thinks like him. There were many things I wish I did or did not do, he said. But everyone had their own time already. Those who said ‘Oh, if I were young again’ reflected that their lives were unfulfilled, unsatisfied. I wonder if it could ever apply to our society with its various kinds of surgeries and cosmetics. He further claimed that aging was not just decay but also growth. You had to embrace it, otherwise you would never be happy because it would happen anyhow. I fully agree with him. I think that everyone had to look at something from a positive side and accept it, and everything would be just fine.
In the last few months of his life, his illness took over and he had to stay in hospital. My parents and I often visited him and talked to him. Eventually he had to go, but he left me priceless teaching and a new better way of looking at life and aging.
