Visiting Great Grandpa Alvin

My last remaining grandparent is my dad's dad- Alvin Lungren. He is 85 and will be 86 May 13th. He ha had cancer in his kidneys for a long time now but it's always been manageable and he's been doing fine. Recently has taken a turn for the worse. One kidney is completely dead and the other one is almost dead. When they get to a 5 rating it dies and his only good kidney is at a 4.5 and has a huge kidney stone in it. Too big to pass. He also has arthritis, and cataracts in one eye. His hands hurt and get swollen which is hard because he is deaf and speaks through sign language. 

His most recent visit to the doctor was not good. They said he could pass away anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 months or something like that. Basically his time is very limited now.

He lives in Rosamond with my aunt and her family. That's a very far distance from me. About 3 hours. So, the boys and I met at my parents, ate lunch and all of us together frove up to see him. It's amazing that the only gray hair he has is in his side burns. And we ALWAYS wears suspenders. ALWAYS. He told us how he hated school and tried to ditch by jumping out the window. He also said he went to his school by train and stayed there for 9 months straight. He would come home on the holidays but that was it. Also, if you were deaf you stayed in school until you were 21. He was a shoe repairman at one point in his life. His favorite school subjects were football and baseball. Even though he hated school, he got good grades. The boys loved hearing all these interesting tidbits about Grandpa.

Then we signed and sang the song "I Love to See the Temple" for him. I have been teaching it to the kids. My mom video taped it and he loved watching the kids use sign language.

It was great to see him. I'm not really close with him, like I was with my grandma, but it's still nice and fun to hear all about his life and what it's like to be deaf. The kids are always fascinated to see him sign. It was a great and memorable visit.

Before we got to Grandpa's house, we stopped to take some pictures of the wild poppies that bloomed. They only grow like that in the Antelope Valley and they are so pretty!