Circle of Life...

My grandfather's health has deteriorated somewhat significantly in a short period of time. In the past 5 months, he's been diagnosed with cancer, hospitalized a few times, and yesterday morning had a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)-a sort of mini-stroke.

My mother has devoted much of her time to taking him to doctors and appointments. Last night, my sister spent the night in the hospital in his room.

For some reason, Erez, who had begun to master (Finally!) the art of sleeping through the night got up at 12pm and was WIDE awake until 3 am. I kept him company as he, in the dark, sought to destroy everything in his path. It was exhausting work and made for a rough end to a 21 hour day. Fortunately it is a national holiday.

I called my sister this morning to get a report on my grandfather's progress. It had been a rough night for her...waking up hourly to escort him to the bathroom and administer to his needs of all sorts.

Her night sounded a bit like mine and it made me appreciate how "what goes around comes around." One day the time will come when my kids have to stay up all night for me.

Or maybe they won't, but that's in part up to me. I've got to give them the type of relationship where they will want to. Or maybe it's is a child's duty? Good question....I mean, does a child who is abused have to care for an aging parent?

Anyway, the point is I felt like my mom/sister and I were in parallel universes on the opposite sides of life's cycle.