[bamanut_aj]

First, my grandmother has Alzheimer's although you "technically" can't call it that until your post-mortem autopsy; but she has Alzheimers. On a scale of 1 -10 she's about a 5 but has, within the past two weeks, become more combative and rebellious.

My granddad has done everything he can to live up to "in sickness and health" but it is wearing him down emotionally and physically. Caring for her is killing him, and now he's about to start radiation for an enlarged prostate. So, he's FINALLY relented to getting her to a nursing home. Unfortunately, Arab AL doesn't offer much in the way of assisted living homes where they could both live together, and I don't know that you could him off of their property anyway. I think it'd be therapy for him to still be able to get out and mow and stuff.

My earlier years were spent with them while my dad was in the Air Force. They were the first "mama and daddy" I remember having. I finally moved back with my dad once his stint in the Air Force was over and he remarried, but my grandparents have always been more than grandparents to me. I've already come to terms a while back with my grandmother....she's been gone for a couple of years now. Unfortunately, she's healthy and strong as an ox. Her mother lived to be 92...and had Alzheimer's...talk about a miserable existence. My heart is heavy now because I'm afraid my granddad may be heading out soon if he doesn't get a change....and he may anyway. He's a fighter and you'd never know he's struggling if you met him on the street but apparently he's giving out. He's a strong Christian, a war veteran (and hero in my book), a helluva granddad.....and just what you expect from a small town Southern man (to borrow from Alan Jackson).

While I initially wanted prayers for them, I'm sitting here at work crying my eyes out (I just got word on the radiation, the nursing home, his failing condition) so I guess pray for me, too. He's always been my idol and hero and my definition of a real American...no offense to my dad because I hold him in high regard too. But my granddad is the greatest man I have ever known, and I'm really hurting to hear and see that he's falling victim to nature's course.