Living Present, Preparing Future: 2011

Learning and seeing how different people grow up and age fascinates me. Everyone has a story to tell and no one story is the same. Choosing chapters out of the book, Social Gerontology, was an easy task because there are definitely certain aspects of aging that really interest me. Learning about older couples relationships, support systems, how their personalities and mental attitudes change as they grow older, and how people age in different cultures and countries are just a few of the specific areas that really have caught my interest.

Meeting My New Grandma

That lady I met in the nursing home,
she looked so much like Grandma.
I thought it was her for a while,
but then she turned around and wasn’t wearing a smile.

Mom pulled her over
and said she was Grandma.
How could this be?
My grandma would never ignore me.

She did look a lot like her,
and dress like her too.
But this is not the Grandma I once knew,
This is not Grandma, what mom said can’t be true.

This Grandma was talking and making no sense;
she had tears and her eyes seemed so sad.
This is some other girls Grandma, not mine.
My Grandma is healthy and happy and fine.

Mom was talking to the nurse,
about a disease call Alzheimer’s.
That doesn’t have a cure,
and Grandma has it, the doctors are sure.

She does not recognize me,
she stumbles and she mumbles.
She’s forgot everything that she used to know.
She is a different person, a new Grandma Lo.

The new grandma looks just like the old,
but in her mind it is different.
She may not be the Grandma I love and know,
but she will always be my Grandma Lo.

Source: Meeting My New Grandma, Aging Poems http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/family/poetry.asp?poem=19446#ixzz1ITFvbnix

Living Present, Preparing Future

Aging in America

Aging in General

Meeting My New Grandma

Chapters of Interest

Pages

References