As I was crawling into bed last night, I grabbed my phone to check social media real quick. This is a necessity in today's world where someone might have a stroke if something happens and they didn't learn about it within moments.I know that I am guilty of this and spend much more time online and interacting with my social media profiles than is probably healthy, but I use my living on the other side of the world as an excuse. Doesn't matter if that is a legitimate excuse or not, I'm all about me being me. And if you know me at all, people's opinions of what I should be doing rarely come into play anyway.
OK…I'm getting a little off-track here. Back to social media.
Looking at my phone, I was excited to see that I had a private message from one of my brothers. It was to let me know that our grandmother had died.
Now, this was not a big shock. She has been sick for a long time and she was in her nineties. Personally, I haven't been close to her for decades. She moved from Illinois (where we lived) to Arizona over 30 years ago. I have some great memories of my grandmother from my childhood, but they are old memories. In my adult life, I very rarely ever saw her. Therefore, we weren't exactly close.
Although I am in no need of comforting, this does make me think about my situation. In 2016, my wife and I moved to Beijing. When we were leaving, we mentioned to our familes that we may have to miss some things. Living on the other side of the world means we may not make it to graduations, weddings or even funerals. We had to mentally prepare ourselves for the possiblity that one of our parents could die and we may not be able to make it home. However, knowing something is possible and actually having to do it are not the same thing.I was not very close to my grandmother, but I would like to be able to be there for the family gathering that will be happening in the next few days. It's okay that I can't make it, but it has made me reflect on what sort of things I might not be okay with missing.
It's amazing what a person can actually do without, when push comes to shove. I mean, the fact that you knew this information so quickly speaks to just how connected up the world IS!
ReplyDeleteYeah. Just makes me reflect on how connected we really are since I now feel more distant.
DeleteThose are hard decisions. I missed attending my maternal grandfather's funeral when we lived across the country, my husband had a new job and no vacation time, and I had five small children. There was just no way for me to make the trip without taking all of the children and spending a lot of money we didn't have. It made me think of my great grandmother who left her own parents in England to move to the US with her husband and small children. She was able to return and visit one time many years later, but that was after her parents had passed on. Technology is a blessing, but world travel is still difficult for most.
ReplyDeleteYes yes. Plus, even if money is of no concern (although it usually is), when it's this far a way there is a fair amount of time to consider.
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