missing someone..

When someone is beside us all the time..we never tend to realize how important they are..or how much their company means to us..
i guess for most of us,the realization only comes to us when the person is no longer around..

at home it always has been me, dad, mom and sis only..we've always stayed together n hardly had any extra member living with us for a long time but on 1st June 2008..my granny from Kedah came down to stay with us. on the first day of arrival..we were all worried as to how we are gonna adjust our lifestyle to make sure granny is comfortable.we started worrying about so many things as we are so used to our own busy lifestyle and were worried that we might not be able to be at home all the time to take care of granny's needs.

she's about 75 years old and prefers home cooked food and it has to be cooked according to her liking..it should not be too spicy or salty, the vege should be chopped into the right sizes and shouldn't be too big..the food should be hot when served to her..shouldn't add "unwanted" ingredients when preparing any dishes b'coz she doesn't like the taste of it ..and the list goes on..
and in addition to that, she had trouble walking fast or balancing herself while walking..u know all these old age problems..so her biggest challenge was to get upstairs to her room as the downstairs room is occupied for other purpose.someone needs to hold her hand to bring her up and down..

and the biggest challenge for us was to adopt to all these changes because usually we are hardly at home as 3 of us are working and will only b back home after 7pm..then my dad altho retired, is always tied up with some work to do during the day time n be back in the afternoon, so this means that all 4 of us usually wont be at home during the day time.

but we were prepared to adjust our lifestyles to suit granny..we made certain arrangements to ensure that she is safely brought downstairs every morning and she gets her "hot" food everytime during lunch..but besides the food arrangement and bringing her down every morning..granny was very much independant..she can stay alone and jaga herself even when we are out.

during the begining stages it was abit tough for us as we were not used to this new schedule..but we all co-operated and tried to give our best shot..

without even me noticing..5 months passed by and somehow we managed to keep her safe n healthy at our home..it was a good experience for all 4 of us. we learned alot during these 5 months as taking care of an elderly person isnt tat easy as we think especially when we never had the experience of it. All the cranky attitude needed to be handled very patiently so that we do not offend her..;)

today granny left for Kedah..back to my uncle's home where she usually stays.after 5 months being with her..i know im gonna miss her company..besides all the extra care we needed to do for her, we always enjoyed her company in a sense that she's always energetic n will tell you loads and loads of stories at any time of the day..stories from her past..
altho some stories were frequently repeated again n again (which me n my sis will secretly keep track on how many times the story has been re-told :P), i know now im gonna miss those moments.

granny also helped me improve my Tamil speaking skills alot..haha..i hardly can speak Tamil properly due to the lack of practise..i sound very cacat when i speak in Tamil and these 5 months speaking Tamil to granny helped me polish the speaking skills abit..so at least now i wont be so shy to say my orders in Tamil when im at an indian food shop ;)

today morning when my whole family left for kedah to send her back..i felt abit sad..even granny was sad to leave..the sofa where she usually lies down to sleep is gonna be empty now..i purposely left her pillow on the sofa..it gives me a feeling that she's still around at home.
i'm gonna miss tat moment when i walk into the house after work and see her turning her head to greet me and i would respond with "hi Patty!"

during weekends when im at home..she would always ask me to sit beside her so that she can spend some time talking with me..she would say to me that when she's no longer around, i wont get the chance to hear her talking again..

i always treasure the company of old people because to me they carry with them a lot of experience from the past which we will never have the chance to experience and they carry with them the blood of our ancestors and the first hand memories of conversation that they had with them whom we never had the chance to meet..

we all will miss her..just hope she will come to stay with us again..

c u again patty..