My grandma is 95 years old. She lives by herself, reads a book a day (Yes – PER DAY), loves The Walking Dead, loves movies about gangsters, talks about politics intelligently, loves her cat, Buttercup, and pre-COVID-19 she went to the Isle Casino every Thursday to play penny slots. During Christmas, when our family gets together at the Diamond Jo Casino, she stays up till 4:00am playing those penny slots. I cannot keep up with her.
This is us at Diamond Jo. (Grandma, Dad, Stepmom, Aunt, and little sis).
My aunt has been taking care of her during COVID. My aunt is the only one that has been able to be around her because we do not want to take any chances of her getting sick which could be a death sentence. That means my aunt has been quarantining at her own house for my grandma’s safety this whole time except to go to a few places for grandma’s essentials. The family calls grandma often and she will talk about how she can’t wait for all of this to end but is in good spirits. I wanted to buy heavy duty protective gear so we could give her a quick hug but she won’t let us. She is as stubborn as she is loving. She never forgets a birthday and when my boyfriend had COVID, grandma called to check on him. So thoughtful of others.
Since COVID is not going away anytime soon, my aunt bought a casino game that my grandma and her can play on the TV. My grandma doesn’t have a big TV so my aunt brought over a bigger flat screen. The game is a slot machine but does not activate any real money so the two of them use their own money to make it more fun. Whoever has the better “spin” pays the other person a penny. This keeps my sweet grandma entertained once a week until she can finally get to the real casino one day.
My grandpa died several years ago. He was a farmer and a Waterloo Deputy Sherriff. He was the sweetest man I ever knew. After retirement, they would play golf every day until the day he died in 1999. I was 29. They won tournaments all the time – even in their 70’s. Some people would back out of tournaments when they knew the “Buehners” were on the rooster. After he died grandma was alone, sad and lost. They were marred 54 years.
She played golf with the family a couple times after he died but it was never the same for her. One day, a friend invited her to join her at the casino and she never stopped going after that. She said that the noise of the machines distracted her from thinking about the loss of my grandpa.
Their love story is movie-worthy. The Notebook has nothing on them! One day I would love to write about it.
Grandma does not have a lot of money. She lives in a retirement community in Waverly where she has her own apartment. Her medication is expensive, yet she still budgets what little money she has to make it work. Her kids help her with the confusing Medicare stuff and try to get her as much money as they can. Again – not leading to much but she is happy and as healthy as she can be for her age.
I love that I have her to look up to. I think about living to be 95 and if I’d even have enough money to live like grandma. I am planning for my retirement, but I am not planning for if I live to be 95! But if I do live to be 95, and am half of what my grandma is, I would consider myself the luckiest person on the planet.
Its funny that I didn’t know what to write about today and then I saw this picture, and all of this poured out of me. I feel it was meant to be seen by someone. Maybe someone that also has living grandparents or older parents that needed the reminder of their blessing. Or maybe it was meant for ME to also take time to count this amazing blessing in my life.
Grandma is blog-worthy! Love your grandma’s today!
Your Life Coach – Traci
I very much enjoyed reading about your Grandmother. My Grandmother is with the Lord now but she’d be my hero as well. Thanks for sharing.