elder

We talked to the oldest members of both of our families tonight. It was nice to hear their voices. We called Mr.'s parents first, and then talked to my grandma afterward. Oddly enough, they are close to the same age. I think his mom is 82, his dad is 86, and my grandma is 88.

Long story. Basically, Mr. is the youngest, born far behind his other siblings. I'm the oldest child of an oldest child. And he's about 10 years older than I am. Makes for some generational confusion.

The point is, we called to let them know about the pending trip to another country for the skin cancer surgery. We are planning to put it out in our weekly update, and wanted them to hear the news from us first.

Unfortunately, Mr. started out by saying, "Well, we have some news…" His mom said all to brightly and cheerfully, "Really??" I knew right away what she was thinking. I don't think Mr. caught on, though, because he continued, "Yes, we need to go out of country because Mrs. [that's me] needs to go the the doctor." Her voice went up another step, her desires about to be realized. I jumped in before her excitement escalated any further, however, telling her flat out that it was surgery for skin cancer. She was a bit crestfallen. But still supportive.

In her defense, she has never made a big deal out of us not having kids. But her reaction tonight made me wonder if she wants it a bit more than either of us realized. She admitted she had thought we were going to tell her we were pregnant. So sorry to have gotten her hopes up like that.

My grandma, on the other hand, had a hard time remembering what we had called about. She is perfectly fine to talk to, but you end up repeating the same topics of conversation about four times in one call. But I sure love her. She has a great sense of humor. And it made her day to hear from us. I'm pretty sure she'll remember that we called, at least.

As we look at heading back to the US soon, we are asking God to give us enough time with them to honor them well. These special older people in our lives. They are so dear.