Article August 13, 2001 Issue

We're both trying to keep our independence

A work in progress for grandmother and granddaughter

By Quinci Coates

About eleven years ago , when I was living in Richardson, Texas, my grandmother retired from teaching and moved in with me. I had just finished graduate school. Neither of us was quite sure what we were going to do next, and we thought we would hang together, share expenses, and see what happened.

Not long after, she went to visit my uncle, and she fell and broke her hip. So for a while, she was in a Christian Science care facility.

After maybe two weeks or so, she came to live with me again, and from that point she began working toward recovering some of the independence that she had lost due to the injury. She couldn't get around without a walker, but she became adept at using the walker and her wheelchair with only minimal assistance.