Family Reunions

Well I just got back from the hospital, another round of grandfathers in the hospital. Just a few months ago, my grandfather, who is probably one of the most influential persons in my life, went into the hospital with I think what was a small heart attack of some kind. Just a week prior to the call I received from my mother letting me know that they were all on their way to the hospital behind the ambulance, I somehow knew it would happen, so I was prepared. I knew then that over the course of the previous weeks his arthritis was getting progressively worse, but it was that morning that Yah revealed to me that I would receive a phone call letting me know he was going to the hospital.
But this round took me totally by surprise. The current grandfather in the hospital is my father's father, and I can probably count on one hand the amount of conversations I've had with him. While my mother's family can occasionally be the passively-aggresive-kind-of-dysfuncational, my father's family is a whole other kind of dysfunctional.
So a few weeks ago I get the call from my mother that my other grandfather is in the hospital, that his cancer has come back, it's lung cancer, and it's terminal. After atleast 40 years of smoking like a chimney, the lung cancer should not have been a surprise, but it was.
Most of my life, my grandfather lived hundreds of miles away in Minnesota. I remember the ocassional card coming from him for birthdays, other milestones, ect. And then when I moved to Minnesota to pursue my degree at the University of Minnesota, about that time or before he moved about 45 away from my parent's house, the town I now live in ironically enough.
We've lived here for about six or seven months now, apparently a few blocks away from his house, and I still do not know where he lives.
I guess because of the awkwardness of getting to know a man I haven't been able to carry on a conversation with for 26 years, now on his deathbed, I put off the inaugural trip to the hospital unil almost a week after I got the news. And I off course went when I knew my parents and Brandon would be there.

But I will never forget the joy in his face when we walked into the room, which was important for me to see. It was like somehow this man didn't forego being a part of my life because I wasn't important enough, but simply because he didn't know how to.

But Brandon is rarely home during the spring planting, as my father guilts him into putting in four or five hours of work on the farm after a full day's work at his office. So I knew that I wouldn't be able to wait for Brandon to get home and escort me to the hospital everytime I felt lead to visit.

So Kaydn Rye and I proceeded down the hallway of the hospital on our own and walked into ICU on our own. We get there and of course, the uncle I have barely had a conversation with in my life, despite his living about five miles away from my parents, is there, along with my crazy (literally, I think she has an emotional disorder) aunt that I had not seen in probably 20 years.
My grandfather looks up, says my name, and then proceeds to fall into what seems to be a comatose state. The scene was much different than the nurse's statement at the check in desk that went something like, "Oh, yeah, he looked like he was up to having visitors a little while ago I was back there. He's been sitting up and talking." He sure didn't look like he was ready to have a dinner party, as she suggested, he looked on the verge of death.
So as he slept I stood there wiwth my uncle and my crazy aunt, who about a third of the way into my visit said with her hand over her chest, "Oh, you're Katie. I haven't seen you in so long I didn't know it was you."
She obviously has a flair for the dramatic.
But to be honest - she's a twin - to my aunt who does stay in contact and is halfway normal -so when I walked in, I thought, "I hope that's Jamie and not Jodie. I hope that's Jamie and not Jody." But when I figured out that it was indeed Jody, I figured I'd have to make the best of it since I had already walked into a G-d mandated family reunion and there was no turning back.

The visit went fine, with Jody yacking away and asking a million questions, which I assumed was actually out of wanting to maybe get to know me and my family, despite the fact that we are Jesus-seekers, which I know she has come to find absolutely disgusting.
But I now know that I will need to get past all the petty discomforts that will inevitably accompany all of the family reunions that the future holds and atleast show my grandfather the life-giving power of Jesus before it is too late.