Why we are in Sanford

    Shortly after I was born, my aunt decided to move away from her exciting Military life to a dull normal life in Sanford. She decided to do so because of my Grandpa. After retiring from the Air Force, Grandpa started to grow sickly. Worried for his health, aunt decided to live near him and Grandma in Sanford. I know it was hard for her. Even though I have lived here since I was a baby, I hate living in Sanford. She hates living here as well because she was born a Military brat. My aunt has lived in two different countries such as Japan before I was born. I feel some jealousy about her living in Japan because she has seen the beautiful pink and white cherry blossoms during the Sakura festival in Okinawa, enjoy the taste of the delicious sushi and other Japanese dishes, and view the famous sights of Japan. I think that to abandon an exciting life of travel for a stationary life in one place would be awful. I know I would go crazy because I love excitement in my life as well. That is why we try to take travel whenever an opportunity arrives in front of us, especially when my grandpa feels up to it.

    Such convenience of my aunt and I living in Sanford occurred five years ago near Christmas time. Grandpa fell ill so badly that he had to be hospitalized twice at different times that year. The first time occurred when Grandma and Grandpa were out shopping. Grandma stepped inside a store and left Grandpa in the van for a short time. When she came back, Grandpa was in horrible shape. He was sweating, not talking clearly, and could barely move. Terrified for his life, Grandma quickly rushed him to the hospital. My family and I were so worried about him when we found. Grandma especially was in a panic because he is her husband and she loves him dearly. We didn’t think he would pull through this time like he always had in the past. I myself was distraught and crushed beyond belief.

    When my aunt and I visited him, Grandpa seemed to be in good shape. The problem was his potassium had gone up and it affected his heart muscles. What had happened was, he was on so much medication from three different doctors that it caused his potassium to go up. My grandpa is a diabetic so that is why he needs medicine. The doctors had to take him off of all of his meds to save him from dying. That was good for the first time.

    The same thing happened around Christmas time. He ended up on the heart floor of the hospital. Grandpa didn’t come home until late Christmas Day. We were so worried about him that we didn’t open our presents until he came home. We felt it just wasn’t Christmas without Grandpa around. Relatives even called Grandma to see if she still had it all together and to comfort us through the process. The positive thing about the whole thing was aunty was nearby to help her mother while her father was in the hospital.

    Now just recently, Grandma fell into panic again and thought she had to call the hospital again to save Grandpa. But amazingly, he pulled through just fine. Even so, I still called him to check on him. The great thing now is, he not on so much medication anymore. The entire saga with Grandpa’s health would have been worse if we had been out in California or in another country because word doesn’t travel as fast. If that were the case, my aunt and I would have been distressed to no end.

    Although I would love to move far away from Sanford I understand why we live here. When one is given the choice to have excitement or the health of a loved one, I know they would choose to sacrifice their need for excitement to care for the well being of a loved one. I would have done the same thing for my Grandpa.