Mia Cash is a proud Stanford grad and Coloradan who aspires to write about and for the Black community, especially the Black family. She currently lives in Boston with her husband, Devon, and is focused on reading more, writing more, and hopefully getting her novel published one day! You can find out more about Mia and her work at writebymia.com.
the story
It was supposed to be a fun weekend. My cousin was graduating high school, and I was looking forward to seeing a ton of family and friends. But the call before I was scheduled to fly home changed all that.
“Your grandmother’s in the hospital. They’re not sure what’s wrong, so they need to keep her for a bit.” My mom, ever the superwoman, didn’t give away too much of the pain and anguish I’m sure she was feeling. I, on the other hand, felt the proverbial gut punch and spent the flight home anxious and worried.
I’ve always taken my family’s, especially my grandparents’, health for granted. Both sets of grandparents lived only fifteen minutes from me when I was growing up, and they always had time to play tennis or go to the pool or take us out for ice cream. They were a constant, loving presence in my life. But now, as I enter my mid-twenties, watching them age has been at times a very heart-wrenching process. They are still healthy, but new issues crop up periodically, the most devastating of which I experienced during that high school graduation weekend.
My grandma, thankfully, left the hospital with a clean bill of health and is back to her daily morning walks and our weekly catch-up calls. And though I am so grateful that things turned out the way they did, I am much more aware of my time with them and the importance of never taking them for granted.
the lesson
Becoming an adult is hard. Beyond coping with the stresses of work, bills, and general existential anxiety, dealing with aging family members is an aspect of growing up that I hadn’t really considered. This experience has exposed my changing role in the family, from the cared-for child to the caretaking adult. And though I’m still trying to navigate what that ultimately means, I want to focus on cherishing each moment I have with my older family members and helping take on the responsibility of caring for them in those moments that age rears its ugly head. It is a different level of maturity that I’m tentatively stepping into as I grow older.
the light
My grandma’s time in the hospital, though brief, really put things into perspective. As clichéd as that is (I know), it truly was one of the defining moments of my 20s. It brought me out of my bubble of the petty irritations that, in the grand scheme of things, truly didn’t matter. Being by her bedside and talking with my grandma as she began the road to recovery brought forth so much love and joy as I realized how large of an impact this woman, and each of my grandparents, had made in my life. Time with them is truly precious, and since then I’ve made it a point to call them more, send them pictures, and see how they’re doing. Though this role as an adult granddaughter is still a bit jarring, I am blessed by the time I have spent with my grandparents and, hopefully, all of the time still left to go.