Grandpapa

Mum just called me to talk about recent family events. It seems my 96 year old grandfather, who once lived with us in Toronto, but got bored and moved to China, is now bored with China and wants to move back to Toronto. My father will have nothing to do with it, and my senile and increasingly impatient grandfather is calling all 3 kids everyday. My Aunt in New York has resorted to not picking up the phone out of fear, and is now seeing a psychiatrist. My Uncle moved to Taiwan and hasn't told my grandfather where he has moved to. You have to understand my grandfather to understand why the family is avoiding him like the plague. He isn't the most pleasant man to deal with. He is impatient and very hot tempered...not exactly the image of a grandfather, or an evangelical reverend, which he once was. Anyhow, he has a short attention span and gets bored of things quickly. He has lived in nearly every state and pretty well drives everyone mad at some point. He has lived with us, then not lived with us, then lived with us, then not lived with us. I suppose I should be more empathetic towards him, but by all standards he is considered rich in China, and has 3+ people taking care of him (their whole family helps out) - he really is a full-time job. This past May/June, I went with my family to visit him, where we met the family and the woman who cooks for him. My grandfather is quite demanding and constantly screams and shouts that the food is horrible and that the woman is an imbecile. The mother ( the cook) is this sweet-kind-Buddhist-vegetarian woman, who wouldn't hurt a fly, but I've seen how she wants to take the Wok and knock the living daylights out of him.

Mum tells me dad is so confounded by what is happening that he feels like a lemming. Seems he is out of the home today to go get his Taiwan citizenship renewed along with my mothers. My father doesn't like Taiwan one bit, but says he would rather take 1 of the lesser evils - and flee back to Taiwan.