I guess once Gram regained consciousness at the hospital, she confessed to the doctor that she’d stopped taking her blood pressure and cholesterol medication on purpose. She hadn’t taken it since we’d left Sunny Sandy Shores.

She hadn’t wanted the medicine’s side effects to interfere with our trip, the worst of which for her was that the pills made her have to go to the bathroom much more often than usual. Gram told the doctor she just didn’t want to be bothered with that while we traveled.

Can you even believe that?!

No wonder Mom gets so mad at Gram sometimes.

But wait until you hear this.

At the beginning of our road trip, Gram somehow had a hunch that I was checking her pill container, so she threw away each day’s pills so that I’d think she’d taken them.

Maybe Mom had been right to want Gram in that condo eight and a half minutes from our house. Because if Gram was going to act like this, Mom really did need to keep a closer eye on her.

As I continued to cry, Mom not only consoled me, but she also apologized for having asked me to keep track of Gram like that in the first place.

“I should’ve never put you in that position,” Mom said.

She also said she should have never discouraged Gram from moving to Sunny Sandy Shores if that was really what Gram wanted. Mom agreed that Gram was right about not needing her permission to do the things she wanted to do.

“Ever since we lost Grandpa, I’ve just felt like Gram needed someone to take care of her, but I should’ve realized that’s her job, not mine,” Mom said.

“But hasn’t she just proven she needs us to tell her what to do, and she also needs us to make sure she does it?”

“She’s got to make her own choices and then be willing to accept whatever consequences come.”

So, you might be thinking that, since Gram stopped taking her pills on purpose and intentionally tricked me into thinking she was taking them AND since Mom didn’t even think it had been fair of her to ask me to keep track of Gram’s medication in the first place, you probably think that I’m off the hook and that this proves none of this really was my fault after all.

But the doctor also told Mom that missing a few days of medication wouldn’t have been such a big deal or made such a big difference if Gram hadn’t been under so much stress. Her fainting had likely been caused by her anxiety, and not her blood pressure.

So now you’re probably thinking that, since all the stress of this road trip was in no way my fault, that this was just more evidence that I really was off the hook.