Great-Grandma Carmel

Angela's Grandma: Carmel Galioto

Dear Daddy,

That lady in the picture is always asking to hold me. She bounces me up and down. Who is she? Why was she acting weird yesterday? Why did Mommy start crying?

Carmen

Dear Son,

That lovely lady is your Great-Grandmother, Carmel. You are named after her. She does love to hold you! Carmel is her name but to tell you who she IS would take many letters.

She is an amazing woman with an even more amazing history. I have known no person to express love and kindness the way she does. The smile in the picture is the most genuine expression I have known her to wear. I've said that she could have taught Mother Theresa lessons in niceness.

That makes what has been happening with her lately all the more upsetting. You see son, your Great-Grandma is in her 90s and when people get that old sometimes they start to forget things. We could see it coming in little spurts; a name forgotten here and a memory lost there.

But this past week has been different and the last two days worse than usual. At dinner last night, she announced that she thought it was time she went home because Jayne and Tony - you know them as Nina and Papa - might wonder where she was. She made this announcement TO Nina and Papa. When we tried to explain that she was already home and that she was eating dinner with Jayne and Tony, she insisted that she used to live there but she doesn't anymore. She said she couldn't stay there, she needed to go home right then.

Mommy started crying because it is hard for her to watch her Grandma forget who we all are. The worst part for Mommy is that she doesn't really know who I am or who you are anymore. She loves to hold you on her knee but it is because you are a cute baby and not because you are her great-grandchild. She had no idea who you were or that I was even your Daddy.

Mommy and I have made a decision: we are going to hug, kiss, and hold Great-Grandma every chance we have because we will not have that many more chances to do those things. Even though she does remember us, you and I are going to continue to let her bounce you on her knee all she wants. It breaks my heart but it brings her joy and that is really what matters, that she gets little nuggets of happiness by being around you.

I could really go on forever when it comes to this subject but know these truths: You will grow up knowing that Carmel Galioto was an amazing woman, that she was nicest human you will have ever personally known,  and that she may have forgotten our names and who we were but never the loves she showed us daily.

Your Father