"Your grandpa is missing."

The honeymoon blog took up so much everything.  So much time and effort into each of those for like 2 weeks straight.  It was driving me nuts because all sorts of crazy stuff has happened since then.  This little story, is an example.

A little over two weeks ago I was finishing up my lunch break when I got a call from mom.  The conversation went a little like this....
m: "what are you doing right now?"
a: "waiting for my patient, I have a new one in 20 minutes.  why? what's up?"
m: "your grandpa is missing."
a: "what?!"
m: "grandma has been sick and she sent grandpa to Pana to get her some medicine at Wal-Mart and then to the grocery store.  she sent him this morning and he still isn't home.  i need you to go look for him."
a: "oh no, ummmm, let me call bill and see if he can be back here to treat this patient and then i'll go find him."

Now, grandpa taking his sweet time is not the issue.  I mean seriously, the man drives slow.  He's 91, he should drive slow.   The problem is that his memory is starting to go.  He had it tested, showed moderate impairment.  Moderate you say, that's not too bad, all things in moderation, right? No, not when it comes to your memory.  A moderate impairment equates to not remembering the year, or how to draw a stick figure house, or, in grandpa's case, from time to time, the directions to the house you've lived in for 60+ years.  My grandparents live in the country, with many roads you can easily get lost on, and he gets confused.

I called Bill, apologized that he had to cut his break short and left the office ASAP.  First things first, Wal-Mart.  I asked the pharmacist and the techs if they'd seen  him, they had, at around 10.  It was 2.  Then another pipes in that grandpa had come back, she'd seen his car van in the parking lot and him wandering in the aisles when she came back for lunch.  Good, he's only got an hour head start on me.

I called mom, reported what I had found, and went to find the scent again.  Other possible places for grandpa to be:  County Market, the car wash, getting his oil changed.  I struck out at all three.  Grandpa pulled the best vanishing act since David Blaine's Streetmagic.

Shortly thereafter mom called to say grandpa just pulled into the driveway.  Thank God. I was not looking forward to hours of scouring the countryside for a black and gold minivan rolling 35 miles an hour.

My cousin Ellen stopped by grandma and grandpas the next day.  She asked if there was anything they needed that Grandpa had forgotten.  Grandma said that he didn't get the half and half, and he got too much milk.  Grandpa laughed at this and told Ellen, "yeah, when we were in Shelbyville yesterday, we got too much milk and forgot the half and half."  No way to pretend like that didn't just happen.  Grandpa didn't realize grandma wasn't with him...or that he was in Pana....yikes!

So, the moral of this story.  Love your grandpa.  Love him dearly so that in the event he is lost, or doesn't remember if if things happened last week, or last year, you can rest assured knowing that he's got enough memories of you stored up, you won't ever be forgotten.