December 17, 2010

Love of Children

Written by: Amy Maitland, CITC Social Worker, Educational Services

It was getting close to ten in the evening on a Sunday night. Suddenly, my cell phone rang and I saw it was my mother’s number. My initial thoughts were that she must be calling me for bad news and they were spot on. “I don’t want you to panic but the ambulance is on its way to pick up grandma. She has developed a high fever and her pneumonia doesn’t seem to be getter better.” As she was finishing her sentence, the sirens and flashing lights approached the driveway. I quickly hung up the phone, gathered my thoughts and slipped on my boots and raced to their home to see if I could do to help. When my grandmother is stricken by flu, sickness or disease it rocks our family’s foundation and the jolt of panic and fear quickly spreads to family members in far distances.

The paramedics in their bright yellow garb dashed in and in a flash, my grandmother was on her way to the hospital. All that was left of her presence was the slightly wrinkled bed sheets still warm where she had laid only just moments ago. For the remainder of the evening, anxious family members and the technical equipment closely monitored my grandmother. I assisted her with her blankets and aided her in sipping her apple juice while we waited for a doctor to pop their head in through the curtain….and then I realized something special. All the care and nurturing this wonderful woman had shown her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in their time of need is now being recycled into this very moment.

My grandmother is the most amazing woman. She cared and loved all her children so deeply as a mother. Now, as mother and daughters, sons and grandsons, we stood together by her bedside showing our honor and gratitude to the woman whose love shaped and developed us into the people and nurturing caregivers we are today.

Grandma Ann is currently a patient in Alaska Native Medical Center’s ICU and I was able to experience how a grandmother’s value of loving of her children can transcend and impact generations.