My grandfather's birthday

Life has a fashion of never turning out the way you might have imagined or played it out and tucked away in your sub-conscious. It keeps us on our toes or life is never boring or whatever other cliche is out there to explain away a sudden turn of events. I finally met my grandfather tonight... in a hospital. Of course, he's frail and old, but still, noone thought that on his big day, his 100th birthday celebration, something might come up and he would need medical help. A fever and sharp pains due to a urinary infection had him in the emergency ward just before the party was to begin. In fact, we got the news while on our way to the restaurant. My cousin made a little detour and went to the hospital where my uncles and aunt traipsed into the emergency ward to find my grandfather stretched out on a gurney. I watched as he greeted each one with a smile and wave, and when my father introduced me, he smiled and reached out and clasped my hand. Then, it was to the restaurant to join the others and get on with the banquet, minus the guest of honor and one of my uncles who stayed with him. During dinner, I showed the photo frame to my cousins, and after playing the photos, tucked it back into the box.

And then, right after dinner, all 25 family members climbed into mini vans and taxis and went to the hospital, where we first filled the waiting room and then later, crowded into his hospital room. I kept waiting for them to ask us to leave, but the doctor and nurses weaved in and around us, as they tended to my grandfather. They managed to bring down his fever with medication and he seemed in the end, quite comfortable. My grandfather, who is totally deaf and his primary guardian - my youngest uncle - who is also totally deaf, must communicate with each other and with everyone else by pen and paper. So, if you try to imagine this scenario: a 100 year old patient who missed his own birthday party, a doctor and a couple of nurses trying to do their work, forms to fill out, lots of questions to the patient and caregiver who are both deaf, misplaced reading glasses, a large group of concerned family members, all writing questions with only one circulating pen and one little notepad in a small room getting warmer by the minute, you might be as surprised as I was, that with all that, it went smoothly, calmly and with much kindliness and friendliness. My uncle who had stayed at the hospital with my grandfather, was given his dinner in boxes, which my aunt and uncles had filled during the banquet.

After the doctor left, one by one, each of the children, the grandchildren, their spouses and the great grandchildren approached the bed, into his range of vision, to wish him happy birthday. And each time, he smiled with pleasure, said their names and/or grasped their hands. The teen-aged great grandchildren all cheerfully greeted him. My cousins and their spouses joked and teased him. Only my aunt, the second oldest in the room, seemed to be the most outwardly worried, but her sons reassured her in their customary good-natured ways.

All evening, I fought off exhaustion from lack of sleep and jet lag, but finally on the way home in the car, I succumbed to sleep while musing about some of the things I saw and learned about my amazing Taiwanese relatives tonight.