Friday, 9 January 2009
What kind of news do you find out when you're jumping up and down with a mini-bar cocktail in hand between pillow mountains on 2 queen-sized beds in your dad's 4 star Marriott Hotel suite which is to be his home for the next 3 months?
That your other Grandad has died, of course.
That makes both Grandad's gone in the space of 6 days. I've never seen my dad so inconsolable. His colleage was in the room with us when we got the phone call, as the rhree of us were just about to go to dinner. He kindly offered his condolences and I thanked him and said I would take care of my dad as he left. I broke the news to my mother and uncle, who both started crying on the phone. This was the grandad I knew, the first time I went to Nigeria, when I was 8/9, my dad said that my grandad was losing his sight. Turns out he had age related wet macular degeneration, ironic as I now work for the company who discovered the cure. I took him my NES and duck hunt game as I wanted him to have something fun to play with before he couldnt see anymore, he absolutely loved it, 80yr old man, merking clay ducks on the NES was the best thing I saw on that trip, followed by my mum chasing our dinner (a chicken) round the courtyard for 20 mins. When I went back to Nigeria a couple of years ago for my Dad's 50th, I went to visit my Grandad again, obviously by this point his sight was completely lost. He doesnt speak any english, so I just sat and said the little Yoruba (Nigerian) I knew, and we had a good translator back. My Grandad used to work in air traffic control - he could tell me what time my plane had come in from heathrow just cause he heard it, and could tell what direction it came from. They say that loss of a sense enhances the remaining. I think they are right.
That your other Grandad has died, of course.
That makes both Grandad's gone in the space of 6 days. I've never seen my dad so inconsolable. His colleage was in the room with us when we got the phone call, as the rhree of us were just about to go to dinner. He kindly offered his condolences and I thanked him and said I would take care of my dad as he left. I broke the news to my mother and uncle, who both started crying on the phone. This was the grandad I knew, the first time I went to Nigeria, when I was 8/9, my dad said that my grandad was losing his sight. Turns out he had age related wet macular degeneration, ironic as I now work for the company who discovered the cure. I took him my NES and duck hunt game as I wanted him to have something fun to play with before he couldnt see anymore, he absolutely loved it, 80yr old man, merking clay ducks on the NES was the best thing I saw on that trip, followed by my mum chasing our dinner (a chicken) round the courtyard for 20 mins. When I went back to Nigeria a couple of years ago for my Dad's 50th, I went to visit my Grandad again, obviously by this point his sight was completely lost. He doesnt speak any english, so I just sat and said the little Yoruba (Nigerian) I knew, and we had a good translator back. My Grandad used to work in air traffic control - he could tell me what time my plane had come in from heathrow just cause he heard it, and could tell what direction it came from. They say that loss of a sense enhances the remaining. I think they are right.
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