Today, our college-age granddaughter drove me to an opthamalogy appt in the city 45' away. Grandpa (vascular dementia) decided he'd go along for the ride. All family members recognize GP's limitations. Here's granddaughter's account of their bonding time in the waiting room:
We sat down in the waiting room. I started reading my Quaint and Old Fashioned British Novel (hereafter, Q&OFBN). My grandpa picked up a copy of Time Magazine - the one with Obama as person of the year on the front. "This magazine cover looks really familiar, but I can't place it," he said (he saw it in the same waiting room of the same clinic last week). I put down the Q&OFBN as he clearly wanted a chat. A chat we had, too... one where he moved from his dietary concerns to the colleges my cousins had chosen in somewhat dizzying succession. This is fairly normal now, though, and after I'd supplied him with my Aunt's name and we agreed she was a very nice woman, he started reading the magazine again. I tentatively picked up the Q&OFBN and read one page before he made his next comment.
"You should have been on stage."
"Really? Why should I have been on stage, Grandpa?"
"Because Madonna just got a 300 million dollar divorce deal."
*squeak* "I should be on stage so I could be Madonna and divorced?"
"Well, you could have changed your name..."
When we dropped her off at her house, he said, "Now there's a very nice lady."
That granddaughter sounds like a very kind young woman. You are fortunate to have her. :) I love my only GD to pieces. I told her I think I've spoiled her a little and she said I had--but not too much. Cute!
I only had one grandparent - all the others died years before I came along. Of my mom's 7 kids, I was the only one that loved to go see her after dementia set in. In fact, none of her other grandkids went to visit from what I remember being told. They could not stand seeing her that way I guess. I was a teenager and even after she no longer knew who I was, I loved to hear her stories. I loved just having time with her even though she didn't know who I was. I just regret never having the foresight to write them down.
Your granddaughter sounds like she has a very special love and respect for her grandfather. I hope she writes these times down so she can remember them to her kids or nieces and nephews later. They are special memories.