dailynewsnblog
My grandfather is 91. His cognitive awareness is waning. One minute he’ll be sharp, retelling stories of his life before 35 with precise details. The next he’ll be asking what we just did. He speaks mostly Spanish to my mostly English-speaking husband. And lately he’s been repeating the same stories over and over again in the same day.
We just spent the weekend with him, and we had a great time. One story he kept repeating was a dream he had a few weeks back. He was back in his home country of Uruguay and he went into a local bar. The place was empty save for the bartender drumming on a table. My grandfather joined in on the table drumming and the table made the most wonderful sound. Together they started playing the most beautiful song. Suddenly, people off the streets started filling the bar to dance to the music they were making.
My son is nearly 2 years old but doesn’t understand Spanish or most of the context of the dream. I doubt he heard it.
Tonight, as I was tucking my son, who shares a name with my grandfather, into bed, I asked him what his favourite part of the day was. As per our usual routine, I listed off the fun-filled day we had from his early morning soccer class to our lunch, and visit to a farm where he went on a wagon ride, played in a sandbox, fed goats, chickens and went down a cool culvert pipe slide. He said he liked how happy the day was. I asked him what his favourite activity from the day was.
His favourite activity from the day was one I had not listed. It was drumming on the table at the farm with my grandfather.
2026
