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My Grandaunts' Routine
Two of the few oldest persons I knew were my two grandaunts. They were my father’s aunts, my grandmother’s sisters and almost like two other grandmas to me. They had their own daily schedule, at least since I started to walk, started to talk, and even having my own thoughts. They would wake up very early in the morning, being warm, cold, raining or even snowing (because they may have experienced that sometime.) Then they would take their daily morning showers, get dressed, go downstairs and one of them would prepare something for herself and the other to have breakfast. After having breakfast they would usually sit near the entrance of the house because someone would always arrive, it could be my cousins, my uncles, my aunts or me; just to visit and maybe eat. They prepared the meal always at noon to eat at one or two o’clock. After whoever who had showed up, eaten and talked about their days have left they would return to their room to watch TV but at 6 o’clock they would walk to the kitchen to prepare their dinner to then be on bed by seven or eight to watch some more TV and fall asleep. Their day ended at 10 o’clock and then their routine would begin all over again. They followed their routine (according to my mother) for more than sixty years, more than three times what I have lived. What I remember the most of them is their routine, always doing the same and the two sisters together. Last January one of them fell and their routine couldn’t be followed anymore. They changed their room from the second floor of their home to the first floor to be easier for them to move within the house. One of them had been in the hospital the last two months, she was sick but her sister would always have the hope to see her back at her side. This Monday everything changed, the one who was at the hospital passed away within the first hours of the day, that day I saw my last grandaunt cry. I had never seen her cried, she cried because she lost the person who had always been on her side for all her life, the one who knew all her secrets and experiences. Her sadness penetrated all of the family, even more than the fact my grandaunt had died. We, aside from being sad were also happy because she was no longer on the pain she suffered for two months. My grandaunt kept saying she abandoned her sister the last two months but she couldn’t be with her at the hospital everyday. One aunt told her she could not compare two months with a lifetime they shared taking care of each other. I would give everything to see my grandaunt smile, to see them both doing their lovely sister routine again.
