|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Taking Care of Business | |||||||||||
| Defining moments are a part of life. A defining moment to me means at various points along life's journey, we experince situations and circumstances that define us as who we are. Defining moments are times when we are affected and life changes for better or for worse. It is these moments when things never are quite the same. These moments can be big or small. It is the affect that defines us as a result of that moment in time. I had my biggest moment at thirteen, when my parents had to move my grandmother into our home. | |||||||||||
| My family moved my grandmother into our home because she was a severe alcoholic. When we first moved her in things are horrible.� She could not do anything on her own.� I was no longer allowed to be a kid anymore. �I had to grow up and become a caregiver to my sick grandmother.� Then we realized how dehydrated and malnourished she really was and had to hospitalize her.� When she got out of the hospital, things just got worse. �� | |||||||||||
| � Someone always had to be there for her, which meant I could not go out to play with friends or even be a kid at all.� All she wanted to do was fight us for alcohol and cigarettes which made things difficult for us to be there for her.� I used a jug that held twenty four ounces of liquid to make her martinis in.� I would fill it up with three parts vodka and one part vermouth which brought it to the sixteen ounce mark. Then the rest of the way with water, shaken not stirred.� For a long time, I hated her because I felt like she took my childhood from me.� My family and I had to do this because the doctors told us if we were to let her continue to drink heavily, she would have died in a month or two.� One morning I woke and heard her screams and a loud boom like something hitting the floor.� As I ran down the steps skipping every other one, I heard my grandmother moaning, "help me!"� As I rounded the corner, I saw her frail hundred-pound body lying on the floor.� She had fallen out of bed trying to reach for her cigarettes.� I had to try to lift her up off the floor and put her back in the bed with no one else around to help.� �It was this moment in time that I realized everything I was doing for her was what was keeping her alive.��� | |||||||||||
| This realization made me take a long minute to really think hard about who I was as a person.� I thought at first I was horrible for having this hatred toward her.� Then I realized that I wasn't.� I was part of what saved her life and kept her going still today.� She had been living with us now for almost seven years.� My grandmother was the reason I had no choice but to grow up and take of the responsibilities of life as an adult.� I could not and did not expect my parents to do everything for her, so I have always been there taking care of her till this day.� Her health had increased tremendously over the years, but she still needs a lot of care.�� | |||||||||||
| This moment in life defines me as a person because I have since then become the most responsible person that I know.� Having to grow up and take on a lot at thirteen has made me realize what I need to do in life to succeed.� I was acting like any teenager does, but having this happen in my life changed everything completely.� I really had no choice in what I did anymore.� It is school and family.� Those are the characteristics that define who I am today. | |||||||||||
| Return to Home page | |||||||||||