When I was born, my parents were both very busy people. My mother was in school and my dad was working full-time to provide for the family. My older sister was only 6 years old and still growing herself, too young to take care of me. Luckily for me, my grandparents were here in America and offered my parents to take me back to China and look after me for a few years while my parents sort things out and focus on my older sister. I will never forget how generous and kind my grandparents are for taking me into their arms and raising me away from my home country. Even to this day, they are very supportive of me and concerned about my well-being for the 20 years I have been alive. The elderly has a lot of compassion and wisdom from being alive for so long, and I think it is very important that we listen and care for them, as they do for us. That is why I care.
When I went back to China 4 years ago, I noticed the aging that has happened to my grandparents and my extended family. My grandfather’s hairline is unusually strong, and he had only a few tufts of grey hair when he was taking care of baby me. My grandmother’s health keeps degenerating as she is unable to walk out of the house anymore and needs my grandfather’s support to walk. My aunts and uncles all seem to have grown stress lines and seem just a bit more tired. We are all human, and humans naturally age with time. It is sometimes hard to recognize that our elders have lived their lives just as we have, with the same ups and downs, success and disappointments, and hope and losses. These people deserve just as much love, and they may need even more attention than what we think. That is why I care.
These two anecdotes really defined my relationships with the elderly. I always keep in mind how time flies, and how we will all become old someday and look down at future generations. I would want to be respected for the time I have spent on this world, and I would respect the younger generations as well. The Elderly Embrace Network creates a bridge between the young and the old and gives more insight and information for a generation that is losing it’s connection with their seniors. I hope to give back the love and respect that my parents, grandparents, and all elderly deserve.
Evan Huang