Hello, dear.

My grandparents have been married for 67 years... or maybe it's 68. Can you imagine? And, they lived alone together up until early this year.

I asked my grandmother once what they talk about after over 60 years of marriage. She said, "Nothing."

I say, "What do you do together?"

"Well," she says, "we wake up, go to church, eat, watch television, then sleep."

"Are you never bored?"

She smiles. But really, there is not much left to talk about, is there? She still pesters him about whatever and he still calls her ling which is short for darling, obviously.

Since she's been in the hospital, she always asks where my lolo is and if he's eaten. When I've been to visit her with my lolo, all he says is: "Hello, dear."

I ask him why he doesn't say anything more. He says, "She does not want to talk to me."

She says, "He does not have anything to say." And for the hour or however long he stays, they'll say nothing.

But when it's time to leave, my grandfather will say, "Who's coming to take over? She'll not be alone, right?"

And my grandmother will say, "Can he not stay?"

Wow.


Ginger. I know. They were in the homeland earlier this year (where lola started to first complain about a cold sore on her tongue, which doctors eventually discovered was the tumor) and they got these nifty dos. My aunt left them at the salon and the stylist convinced her that red was the trend. Lola liked the colour, and lolo decided to go with the same. Go figure. Nobody really liked it at first. I love it! (My sisters tell me it's because I didn't see it when they first arrived. I guess it was really intense.) The colour has actually faded a bit and Tita Grace re-dyed lolo's hair, which is perhaps unfortunate since it made him look young!


Mama works at Mt. St. Joseph and my grandmother happens to be in her ward. It's nice that she can pop in every now and then to visit with her mother. Her co-workers are worried that my mother is stressing or whatever, but she keeps reminding them that our family is always around and that my grandmother hasn't passed yet so there's no real reason why she can't work. They're probably watching her like a hawk to see if she'll make an error and then they'll make it seem like it's emotional stress over my grandmother. How do you tell people that everything really is okay??? I mean, of course, when loss comes, we'll have to deal with it, but right now, it's all about my grandmother's care.