Shouldn’t we all look after our parents when they get old, no matter how they treated you in the past? I have two uncles in Trinidad that did not even bother to help my grandmother out with my grandfather in the last few years, especially that week he died. The neighbors are the ones who my grandparents depended on; they did everything for them. Yes, my grandfather was nicer to them than to his own kids, but that’s the way he was and you can’t change him. Yes, my grandfather used to drink heavily and had his mistresses back in the day and didn’t give my uncles money when they needed it, even for school. But he had changed and wasn’t like that anymore. He was just plain grumpy. I would just make jokes and take some of the things he said with a grain of salt because that’s the way he was and I knew he wasn’t changing. I accepted it and made the best of it.
That last week when my grandmother needed my uncles, they weren’t there. She had to bathe him alone or have one of the neighbors help her. When they saw him fall off the hammock, it was the neighbors that came over. When he needed something, it was the neighbors that helped him; they took him to the bank, to the pharmacy, to get his glasses, groceries, etc. Where the hell were his two sons who lived right in Trinidad? How can we, up here, live knowing that my uncles didn’t do anything for him when maybe he wouldn’t have died or the very least, he would not have suffered as much? What kind of children would do this, especially when they knew what my grandmother was going through? My mom and uncle up here felt for my grandmother and knew the trouble that she was facing, and they did more for them when they were way up here. Once when my grandmother said she needed my uncle’s help, one of them told her to call my mom or my uncle up here. How can you say such a thing when you’re right there?
There is a limit as to how much you should hold a grudge against someone, isn’t there? As a human being, much less a son, you let your parents suffer like that? Never shall they be forgiven.
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Your family must be more closely-knit than most. The typical American will look to medical attention (and pay for it) before trusting their family members.
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If a society is willing to give freedom for temporary security, they deserve neither.
I guess we are. But it's different in a different country. You know....
I guess we are. But it's different in a different country. You know....