Daniel, go visit your grandma they said, It will do her some good they said, well they were wrong. As I drove up to my grandmother’s house the sight of the faded paint and dirty windows along with the overgrown lawn mirrored the shell of a woman that its owner now was. My weekly visits were not by choice. They were planned by my parents; mostly my mother. My grandmother’s dementia was something we all wanted to forget but couldn’t avoid. My mother thought that it was kind to give my grandmother a chance to have her old life back with my visits, when really it was cruel. I opened the front door and put my keys in the dish next to the pile of unopened mail. “Hello? Who is it?” she called from the living room. I couldn’t help dragging my feet …show more content…
I will make you some lunch. I recorded your game for you, you know the one with Athletico Bilbao and Madrid in the finals. I even skipped my Wheel of Fortune because I knew you wouldn’t want to miss your fútbol,” she said as she trailed into the kitchen. This is wrong, this is so wrong, I thought as I sat down on the couch to watch the game. I saw as the players run up and down the field kicking the ball this way and that, but I wasn’t really watching. I already knew how it would end; Bilbao would win 2 to 1, even though I couldn’t understand a word they were saying. All I understood of the fast paced Spanish was when someone would shout, …show more content…
I know you want to, you always want to. You’re not happy here with me so just leave. I don’t need you, I don’t want you!” I am sorry to say this was where I couldn’t take anymore. The thought that this was supposed to be helping her didn’t make sense to me. It was wrong to manipulate her like that, I had to stop it. But I never should have done it like that. “Grandma! I am not Toni, I am Daniel! Toni is gone!” Those eyes once glazed over with a false happiness drained away to reveal the true sadness within. Instantly I regretted what I had said, but before I could say anything to make it right again she crumpled to the ground. It was only a minor heart attack but it still haunts me to this day.
It was the hardest decision we ever had to make, but after that insistent my family saw the pain that was really caused by these lies. Her condition was becoming too severe to let her live on her own and we agreed that we needed professional help. We still regularly visit her at the assisted living center but I can’t forgive myself for what I did that day. She was not in her right mind and the idea of just letting her forget all of her troubles was something I wanted so badly to give her. But the truth of reality as harsh and cruel as it can be was the right thing to