While …show more content…
Eric summarized well what I needed to learn from this project: “He just wants someone to listen to him.” Hearing this, as well as all the things Grandpa said, I came to a realization about why he might act the way he does. The man is simply yearning for attention, especially from his family. He is right when he talks about how my grandma spends more time at her job or with her work friends than with him, and when he complains that my mom and aunts do not come to him unless they need him to fix something. Our typical response of ignoring Grandpa when he talks seemed so uncaring after observing Eric listen to his rants so patiently and …show more content…
I knew that growing up, his family was poor and his parents were abusive. Additionally, I knew that my “grandma” was actually his third wife and that my mother’s biological mother was abusive to her family as well. Furthermore, when I was eight years old one of my aunts (his teenage daughter) was killed by a classmate, sending him into a major case of depression for a few years. All these things combined, I knew, were parts of the reason my grandpa has a greatly negative attitude, but I did not think they justified his behavior since my mom and the rest of her family had recovered and carried on pretty