Bianca Pettigrosso’s article, “Déjà Vu” is a touching nonfiction piece about a grandmother with Alzheimer’s and her granddaughter who fears the future. While reading this piece, I felt emotional because I have a lot of elders in my life who I look up to very much and have a big impact on me. My grandparents are like superheroes to me. They were by my side ever since I was just a tiny baby, and they taught me so much. My sister and I learned respect, manners, and love from them—typical of Asian grandparents.
I have similar feelings to Bianca’s article. I also fear “the future” where the inevitable lies. It is hard realizing that one day, the people that I look up to the most won’t be with me. They won’t see me live my dream and finally get the career I’ve been telling my grandparents about my whole childhood. I fear that moment where my family and I crowd around one hospital bed, which has my grandfather or grandmother on it, IV tubes stuck in their arms and a heart rate monitor by their side, slowly counting away their last moments. I fear when we all cry because he or she doesn’t remember any of us because of all the medicine that they’ve taken. And that moment where we realize that their life is over.
It is hard, knowing that my grandparents won’t be with me when they are here with me right now. But for the time being, I realize that I have to make as many happy memories with them as I can. Telling them I love them before they disappear and sharing laughter with them before they forget. There’s never second chances when it comes to elders and I think we have to realize that. Fortunately, this moral is told in Bianca’s beautiful article, “Déjà Vu.”