Recently, amidst COVID-19 panic, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick suggested that grandparents should be willing to die for the long term recovery and benefit of the economy.
As abhorrent as that is, there were people who defended or even agreed with the statement.
I thought I'd lost my faith in people when I saw a 12 pack of toilet paper online for $385. As the lock downs continue, I am finding new ways to lose my faith.
I will not give give Dan Patrick, or anyone who feels the elderly are expendable, any more of my words.
I want to tell you what my grandparents were to me. I invite you all to comment and tell the story of the important elders in your own lives.
My maternal grandparents were a safe haven for me. I was being abused, we were poor, my parents' relationship was volatile, and we moved every year.
At my grandparent's house I was safe. There was enough food. At Halloween, my grandmother made me costumes that sufficiently hid the fact that my parents couldn't afford one.
My grandfather picked me up from school and allowed me to stop for secret candy that we made oaths to never tell my mother about.
They sprinkled stardust all over my childhood.
I had new back to school clothes because of them.
I learned the capitals of all the states because of them.
I learned how to balance a checkbook (back when we had them).
I learned that mothballs and lavender will keep mice away.
That you can turn several slivers of soap into a new bar.
That motherhood is an exclusive club.
Vicks VapoRub and Robitussin will cure anything.
How long to cook a turkey.
That onions frying in a pan will fool your family into thinking dinner's happening when you have no idea what you're making.
Latch hook.
Crocheting.
That you leave your Christmas tree up until Epiphany and never put the baby Jesus in the manger until Christmas Eve.
That you never cross a picket line.
How to get the lumps out of mashed potatoes.
Never open an umbrella in the house.
That life is short and try "not to get so upset".
Every day I think of them. Their hard lives. The poverty they grew up in. The difficulties they faced of which we cannot comprehend.
Our elders are warriors.
They deserve our care, our love, and our respect. Dying alone in the ICU so that resources are available for others in one of the wealthiest countries in the world is a horrifying thought.
They have already taken too many for the team.
A quarter of a million children in the United States under the age of 1 live with a grandparent.
30% of physicians in the U.S are 60 or older.
Our lives are dependent on each other.
We need to protect them like they protect us.
As we grow old…the beauty steals inward - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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