Expenses for Xono's Grandpa

I was raised by my grandparents from the age of 2. My mother was young when I was born, and while she did her best, it was still difficult. 3 jobs for a 17 year old was a lot to handle, while trying to care for an infant. So she did the best thing she could do for me at the time, and relinquished me over to them.

  They were Mama and Poppy to me. Mama worked during the day at Subway, while Poppy worked as a janitor at night. It was a struggle to have another baby in their house at their age, but they did it happily and loved me unconditionally.

Eventually, Mama and Poppy ran their own restaurant. I watched as my grandparents worked 16 hour days, 6 days a week, just to keep our family afloat, and me in extracurricular activities. Monday was the only day they didn't have to work, so that was the day everyone slept in, and I first discovered my love for video games. Poppy bought me my first system, the PS1, with Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. He loved watching me play, so much, that we got more controllers, and a game called Activision Classics. It had 30 games from the Atari 2600. Poppy would play boxing with me, and I'd try to teach him how to play Pitfall. Later he saw how much I loved to play, and at the age of 6, I got my Gameboy Color with Pokemon Yellow. He got me every Pokémon and knew every one, and watched the show with me. I guess you could say he fed my addiction from the start.

  Eventually, my grandmother got sick and had to close down the restaurant. I was 13. My grandfather stepped up, and began his janitor career once again. He took side jobs where he could to support his family. In turn, I saw very little of him during the day, because that's when he slept. But when he was up, he never looked tired. He never showed how worn out he was. Never gave me a chance to think something was wrong. Instead, he would just greet me with a "Hey, baby! How you doin'?"

  He never stopped taking care of me. Even as a 26 year old woman with her own family. He'd still offer me food or gas money, still check on my mental health, and still call me his baby.

 

Right now, my grandfather is undergoing a series of invasive surgeries.

Poppy had a surgery go wrong, and increasingly get more infected, over a course of 15 years. Not one doctor noticed it until 2019. He had a year of at-home IV treatments, followed by a Wound-Vac inserted into his body. They had multiple surgeries to clean out the infection, but no matter how hard it would fight, it would keep coming back.

Last week, he had a synthetic vein replace a previous one from his neck to his groin, and is currently on a ventilator due to the strain on his body. The infection spread to his bowels, so they had to remove a piece of that as well. Today he's having a feeding tube inserted, and he's on a ventilator, struggling to keep taking breaths.

  I can't begin to express how much my heart hurts, watching my hero wither away in front of me. And I can't even be there, due to COVID restrictions. I'm trying to keep on a strong face for my family, and for the community, but its just so hard.




  So this is my first time doing this, but I made a gofundme to help support Mama and Poppy. Currently, my grandmother is jumping from hotel to hotel while he undergoes all of these procedures. It's exhausting, and expensive. I've made a small goal to at least help get her through the next week. But every little bit helps.