When I was seven, visiting my grandfather was part of my weekly rhythm. We\u2019d walk from the corner shop to his little house, my hand wrapped around his like I was the one keeping him safe.<\/p>\n
Inside, everything followed the same pattern. He would hold my hands, study my face, and smile before pouring us two glasses of grape juice. He didn\u2019t talk much, but his attention made me feel calm and protected. To me, it was simply our quiet tradition.<\/p>\n
As I grew older, life sped up. School, friends, responsibilities\u2014I stopped visiting as often. When I did, he seemed more distant, more silent. I told myself it was just age.<\/p>\n
After he passed, regret settled in. I wished I had shown up more. Still, I treasured those memories.<\/p>\n
Years later, my mother told me the truth.<\/p>\n
Back then, my grandfather was already losing his memory. He forgot many things\u2014but he never forgot I was coming. Holding my hands and studying my face was his way of fixing me in his mind. The grape juice helped him take his medicine, and by sharing it, he turned fear into love.<\/p>\n
What I thought was routine was devotion.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t just greeting me. He was memorizing me\u2014before time could take me away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was seven, visiting my grandfather was part of my weekly rhythm. We\u2019d walk from the corner shop to his little house, my hand wrapped around his like I was the one keeping him safe. Inside, everything followed the same pattern. He would hold my hands, study my face, and smile before pouring us …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4185,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions\/4185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}