Nursing Diary – 10
My son, my mother’s grandson, returned from Tokyo and stayed home three days and two nights this weekend. He regularly comes back to see his grandma and me. He worries and wants to know how his grandma’s health is and how my life goes on taking care of her, saying he wants to give me a help. That makes me happy and feel relieved every time.
In the past months, I found that my mother becomes talkative and tries to speak with limited words when talking about old memories of her grandson. I open albums of many old pictures of my son, which invokes her vivid memories from his baby time to the recent ones.
We chat about the time when her grandson was born and how my mother looked after him while I was working until late at night.
Her job at home was to do all of the housework for her grandson and me except for the emergency and something related to education at a kindergarten and schools from Elementary to College of Technology.
Now, I do all of the house work for her and my family, handling my work at home. As for cooking, I cannot thank more about housework she had done like making meals such as lunch boxes, breakfast and dinner every day until my son left home for his job out of this town after the graduation of the college.
Since I started to fully care my mother, I make breakfast, lunch and dinner for her. I sometimes prepare snack and sweets for morning and afternoon.
Surprisingly, she eats anything I cook though she used to have likes and dislikes. That was one of the main reasons I couldn't get interested in cooking when I was younger. It was troublesome to think about eaters’ preference before making a plan for cooking, which ending up discouraging me to cook. However, my mother says “ Yummy and Delish !” finishing all served dishes now. It is unbelievable that it was the same person who used to be peculiar about food long time ago.
I guess she simply forgets what she liked and disliked because of her disease of dementia though.
Anyhow, with her positive comment on my cooking, I can continue doing it as a part of the housework with my responsibility and my effort. Yet, I still don’t think I am a good cook and love it. Actually, for me, anything will do as long as I get full and can gain nutrition to stay healthy.
So, I really respect a person whose hobby is cooking, to tell the truth.
Honestly speaking, I learned one thing from cooking that food / meals cooked home never gets us feel tired of and makes us feel healthier no matter how poorly the dish looks. Besides, home-cooking warms us not only inside our body but also our heart, satisfying our body and soul. I really understand why especially babies and children need to be fed with home cooking meals, because it would affect them later in their lives. Maybe all human beings learn about the state of heartwarming mind from those home cooking meals and learn about love through it. I thank my mother because she never failed to cook for my son.
In general, I suspect that the poor diet / meals custom might have something to do with crimes among perpetrators. When I hear the news and see criminals in the picture or on TV, I cannot help thinking it associates with their unfortunate experience by lacking love from their family.
Her cooking was not always perfect and professional but regardless of the looks of the dishes, she eventually gave her love to my son. My son received her love and learned heartwarming feeling from her cooking while he didn’t notice. Now my son wants to return it to his grandmother. I’m not sure if he understands my theory I mentioned here, but I feel grateful when he offers me his support to do something for his grandma, spending time, money and labor work.
This year’s golden week , Spring Consecutive Holidays in Japan from the end of April to the beginning in the second week of May, is coming soon.
My son would return from Tokyo and stay with us, he said. He has a plan to do DIY for his grandmother after realizing she has become more frail and it is matter of time when she cannot walk anymore. Day after day, it is getting difficult for her to walk even to the bathroom without touching the wall. So, he wants to help his grandma. Then, he suggested building a handrail on the wall leading to the bathroom during this Golden Week.
He will visit a home center and buy some materials to make the handrail.
Whenever my mother and I look at the albums, I thank my mother for her help to raise my son through her life, knowing how dependable and reliable her grandson has become as a responsible man of a family.
I believe she would be proud of him if she recognized this fact though.
The happiest thing is to see my mother receiving love she gave to her grandson from him.
I cannot wait to see the handrail my son is going to make for his grandma during Golden Week.
