i’m asleep. that’s what i am.


“I’m asleep. That’s what I am. I’m always asleep.”

My grandmother has dementia. I spend my weekends with her. On Sunday she had a pensive moment and when I asked her if she was ok she said “I’m asleep. That’s what I am. I’m always asleep.”

She looked so sad and so done with caring, it broke my heart.

My grandfather, a stoic man, saw it and saw me reacting badly to it and sat down beside her and took her hand in his and this is what he said:

“You know, when you love somebody it don’t get old and fade away when you do, or when things change. I love her more now than I ever have. I fell in love with this little girl the first time I laid eyes on her. I was twelve years old and if you would have told me then that I’d ever love anybody more, I wouldn’t have believed you. But I do. I love her more. Now. And that’s the truth.”

I cried. Because that’s just what I do.

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