Old people stories are the best!

[Jenoch]

56. My grandmother became a widow at age 65.

She the buried three live-in boyfriends before she died. She was a bit of a gossip, she would sometimes mutter under her breath in Ukrainian, but she beamed when her grandchildren were at her home. At her funeral my brother mention he never saw her laying down. She was a bundle of energy shortly before she died. She was a lucky woman.

My mother was not in great physical condition the last ten years of her life. My dad was able to keep her at home until three months before she died. She actually died from a norovirus that spread through her nursing home. I was devasted at the time, now I suppose it was her time. She had dementia. It was also costing my father $200 per day for her care. The only thing I ever heard him say about it was that he was glad he could afford it.

(He went a long way from delivering ice at 13. He was a high school dropout. He alao owned his own business for 26 years and retired with enough money to pay $200 a day to care for my mother.)