I wanna be the loving, cheerful grandmother!

There are two types of old people in this world: 

1) The cheerful, beaming, loved-by-everyone old man/old woman

2) The bitter, grumpy, suspicious-of-the-world old man/old woman

A recent news about my grandma in Indo who has dementia made me want to write a blog post about this. And also I've met a lot of senior customers in the pharmacy and other places. Let's start by telling you about some of them..

Type no 1: The Cheerful Senior

There is this old chap who always hums and sings as he comes into the pharmacy. Despite his completely white hair, I can't believe he's 70 with his 19th century styled golf cap. He would greet us the pharmacy assitants: "Hello little ones! How are you today? I'm here to see my old friend (the pharmacist) up there!" Then he will walk up to where the dispensary is and greet any customers on the way. Such a lovely old man isn't he! He would definitely brighten everyone's day just for coming into the pharmacy to get his scripts filled in. There is also this old lady who used to come to Chooks with her husband. She has dementia (she doesn't remember anything), sometimes she even ask her husband "Who are you?". Some old people who have dementia would get scared all the time because they don't know where they are etc etc. But this woman is different, she would come into the store with her husband saying "Oh what a lovely store!! I love the colours here, they're all so bright!". Do you see what I'm getting at? :)

Type no 2: The bitter old "Boggis, Bunce, and Bean"

NB: For those who haven't watch Fantastic Mr Fox would have no idea who Boggis, Bunce, and Bean are. I was referring to scary old men who are not very friendly.

Some old customers that come into the pharmacy doesn't talk much and they always frown when they hand in the script.. Sometimes it makes me wonder if I did/say anything wrong, and sometimes I feel guilty for being too cheerful in case it's annoying to them. Maybe it's because they're in pain or tired I don't know.. But it's the complete opposite of the previous two I mentioned. Some are not completely "Boggis, Bunce, and Bean" but they are suspicious of the people around them, especially those whom they discriminate (e.g. if they see customers of other races, etc). Some fight with their children all the time. Some are afraid of change. All these unhappy characteristics which I'm sure is somehow caused by the things that they encounter in the past (wars, etc) or how other people treat them. 

These people who didn't have a very good past life was very unfortunate. But for the rest of us, so far we haven't been in any war situations, especially my generation. Our countries have been pretty peaceful compared to the wars in the Middle East and African countries. So let us all be grateful for that, and do so by being more cheerful about every single thing. If I get dementia when I grow older, I would want the good memories to be kept and hence become the loving happy grandmother of Type no 1 to my grandkids. So maybe if I start being cheerful about every single thing in my life now, accept everyone no matter who they are, and share compassion, my brain would be accustomed to being like that till the end of my life :) What about you?