No Regrets

I received a phone call last night from a family member who said they were calling to check on me to see how I am holding up after my Grandmother’s funeral, etc. After several minutes of chitchatting about this and that we managed to get onto a kind of touchy subject… I was a little surprised when she confessed that she regretted not taking the time to go see my Grandmother in the past few months. I am thinking to myself- “Wow. Really? You and how many other friends and family?” This particular person has been a popular topic of discussion over the past nine months during all of the time my Grandmother was on the downward spiral in her health. Most of the discussions revolved around the fact that she just stopped going to see her at all. And when I would call to check on her, she really had no reason for not taking the time to go see her except that she is busy at her job (Note that she is WELL over retirement age and is still working a cash register somewhere to support her spending habits…) Yet, none of the rest of us could figure out why she didn’t even attempt to visit… And now she is confessing that she regrets it… Wow. It is really astonishing to me how so many folks have so many regrets in their lifetime. And these regrets really start to rear their ugly head only after someone dies. On the flip side, several folks have said to me in the past two weeks- “Have no regrets. Kelly, you did so much for your Grandmother- never regret any of it”… Those words really make me wonder why someone would tell me that… Why would anyone think that I regret ANY of it? I find it odd because believe me- I have NO regrets! I did everything I could to keep my Grandmother warm, safe, dry, fed, clean and comfortable. Even though her demented mind said the opposite, I knew better than to argue with dementia. I made an agreement with her several years ago when she was of sound mind to take care of her to the bitter end no matter what happened… and that is exactly what I did. It is that simple and nothing more. And definitely- I have NO regrets. Period.