Birthday Milestone (Not Mine)

Today, DH's grandma celebrated her 90th birthday.  Yup 90th!  Can you believe it?  What a milestone!  Grandma has 6 grandkids (plus spouses) and 10 great grandkids.  We are all heading up to DH's hometown on Saturday for her surprise birthday party.  DH's siblings are flying and driving in from all over early for this, and for Christmas next week.

Today, DH, my FIL and I took Grandma S. out for lunch for her birthday.  We took her to a Japanese Tepanyaki restaurant, one of those where you sit at a grill and they cook the food in front of you.  Grandma had never experienced anything like this so it was really great to see her so intrigued by it all.  She watched the cook closely like a hawk.  She almost forgot to eat!  I know she enjoyed it.  On the way home, she said "Boy, that restaurant was something.  I like how they made the train with those onions".  The cook had stacked some onion rings on the hot grill so steam came out of the onion stack like smoke coming out of a train.

Grandma has been through a lot.  Last year, we lost Grandpa S on the 4th of July.  He was 97.  They would have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last September.  At his age, Grandpa was very sharp and fairly healthy.  Two years before his passing, he fell and cracked a rib.  Then his health went downhill after that with multiple hospitalizations and nursing homes.  It was very tough on Grandma through all this.  Not long after Grandpa's passing, Grandma had a stroke.  Since then, she has been a lot quieter, weaker and has lost her spunk.  But she still kills at the Peg Game (game similar to Sorry).

DH was very close to his grandparents.  Growing up, he spent a lot of time hanging out with his grandparents.  He learnt how to play cribbage with them and Grandpa would tell him his stories from the days of the Great Depression.  DH used to bike to his grandparent's house for breakfast before heading to classes at the college.  So he really did spend a lot of quality time with them.

Over the last few years of TTC, I had hope that Grandpa would have had the chance to meet at least one of our kids.  I regret that we did not have the privilege.  And now I fear that we may not have the privilege with Grandma either.

I am hoping that 2010 will prove me wrong.