Great Grandma holds AndieIt’s a tough thing to watch your loved ones hit that point where age begins to take its toll. Grandma Vander Maas is my one remaining living grandparent, and has been since Grandma Buddingh and Grandpa Vander Maas passed away in 1990 and 1991, respectively. And for all those years since then, she’s been physically healthy and for the most part sharp as a tack mentally. But not long after Dad passed away in 2004, we started to notice a decline in her faculties. It’s been gradual, but over the past few years, it’s clear that time has taken its toll.

Adriana met her Great Grandma Vander Maas tonight at the annual family Christmas gathering; unfortunately, I’m not convinced that Great Grandma realized who it was that she was meeting. I’m reasonably sure that she knew who I was, she waved to me and gave me a hug and asked how I was right away, and while she didn’t remember Will’s name right away, she was happy to see him - “so this is our Will!” But then I told her that she had to come and meet her new great-granddaughter, and it was clear that something wasn’t connecting. She was more confused than excited, and her entire verbal response was in Dutch.

It’s odd. I’ve dealt with this before, especially with my Great Aunt Tena, who was rather pleasantly confused later in her life (especially as regards the horses that kept clomping around at all hours of the night upstairs at the nursing home), but she was so physically frail that the confusion was almost a blessing, in that it made the physical decline more bearable somehow. But Grandma Vander Maas looks pretty much as healthy as ever; she’s just not all there.

I’m rambling, I know. But it’s just sad to watch the people you love slip away. I’m thankful that Adriana will have a photo of her with her Great-Grandma, and I know that she likely never would have had an opportunity to know Grandma the way I have known her. I guess I just wish that Grandma could have the chance to know Andie.