“Don’t call me again! Why waste time on something you don’t care about? It hit me ages ago that neither you nor your kids give two hoots about whether Grandma’s alive or not!
Finishing uni lined up with two big momentsmy wedding and landing my first proper job. I started as a manager at a decent firm, then took maternity leave a few years later when my beautiful daughter, Emily, was born. She grew up sharp as a tack, so her dad and I spared no expense sending her to a top university. After graduation, he even pulled strings to get her a good job.
A year later, she introduced us to her fiancé, then got married and had twins.
My granddaughters were eight when their grandadmy husbandpassed. It hit us all hard. At first, Emily got it. Shed ring me every day after work, chatting about her day while I shared mine.
But then she got busier. When I called, shed make excusestoo swamped to talk. Eventually, she only rang every few days, and even then, it felt like a box-ticking exercisealways vacuuming or dashing out mid-call. One day, Id had enough and snapped, ‘If you cant spare five minutes for your own mum, dont bother calling at all!’
She brushed it off, and I apologised. After that, she called a bit moreuntil it went back to once a week.
Her attitude proper got to me. I stopped eating, couldnt sleep. The last straw? A whole week of silenceher ignoring my calls. So when she finally rang, I shouted, ‘Dont call me again! Why bother pretending? Ive known for years you and the girls couldnt care less if Im alive! You just want my cooking and birthday parcelsthats it!’
She blew up, called me selfish, and said she wouldnt ring again. Her words hit me like a ton of bricksmy heart raced, everything went black, and next thing I knew, I was in hospital.
A nurse listened to my story but shook her head at the end. ‘You older lot forgetweve got plates spinning nonstop: work, kids, bills, housework. Fitting in a proper chinwags near impossible. So cherish those quick calls, even if its just on the school run. My advice? Find a hobby. Keep busy. The daysll fly by till you hear from them again.’
And shes right. When youre wrapped up in something you love, you stop counting the days between calls.”
