My Great Grandma

Maria Barrios always carried her cross with her. Being a catholic, her cross gave
her a sense of security. It also granted her the ability to thank God for all that he has
done. God is someone who she will always look up to when she wants to help
someone. Whether it be praying for someone or asking for help, she knows that God
will always be on her side.
She carried her Life-Alert around with her everywhere she went. As she is getting
very old, there are times that she can get hurt. My great grandma is a very clumsy
person. Every time we look away from her, she somehow manages to hurt herself.
Whether it be falling off a step or waving a knife around in the air when she tries to talk
without even realizing it, that Life-Alert will always be there if she were to need it.
She carried her purse whenever she left the house. That purse was no ordinary
purse. It was filled with things that she would never use. It only had her glasses and the
occasional check she wrote for her grandchildren. Sometimes there would even be the
phone that my family got for her, which she absolutely refused to use.
She carried her love for her whole family. My grandma is one interesting person.
Most of the time she can be the sweetest little old woman in the world, but there are
times where she is just flat-out mean. Most of the time she is nice to me. There was
only a time where she criticized my “fake eyelashes” which she thought were fake
because she does not have the best vision.
She carried her pain. Even though she is very strong and healthy for her age,
sometimes she complains of something that hurts. Older people often have joint
problems and she is not excused from them. There are times where she would just be
walking around, and she has to hold onto something because her knees hurt. I feel so
bad for her when this happens. She is also experiencing pain in her hands so when I try
to cook with her, she can’t grip things all the way.
She carried the struggle of forgetting. 14 years ago, my grandma was in a very
bad car accident. Her and my other grandma were driving on a street with a large curve
(at the time there were no stop signs on this curve) and somebody who was going the
opposite way took the turn too fast and hit them. My grandma who was driving the car at
the time of the accident immediately turned to me and realized that I was ok. She then
turned to my great grandma and saw that she was unconscious. Because of the man
who was “late for work” my great grandmother now struggles with dementia. This
disease has changed the whole entire aspect of our family. At all the gatherings, she
struggles to remember the names of the people she once greatly cared about. It has
gotten to the point that she does not recognize people when she sees them in person.
At the end of the day, it is obvious she dwelled a lot in her mind. What would the
family do if she passed? How would it make them feel? What are they feeling when she
forgets their name?
 It was evident that she questioned a lot of things but as she usually did, she
turned to God for the ultimate answer.