*sigh*

This time in Hong Kong I am really noticing how long I have been away in the States. Relatives like my aunts and uncles have aged greatly from what I have remembered from when I was a child. My parents and I found out today that my aunt is in the hospital (oldest from my mom's side). She was suffering from Parkinsons and now she fell and broke her wrist and fractured her hip. It made me really sad to see her because she looks exhausted, and I just cannot even begin to imagine what type of pain she is in. She fell at her nursing home and the nurses didn't even know she broke her wrist, and then it wasn't even until weeks later that they found out she broke her hip. She wasn't able to express the pain she was in because of her Parkinsons. Poor thing. She has surgery tomorrow on her hip to replace her socket joint, it's such a big surgery and at her age your metabolism is so much slower, I am worried, very worried. Honestly, the part that I am the most upset about (besides the horrible nurses at the nursing home and the environment of the nursing home) is that she is going through so much pain. It is just not fair for someone to have to go through so much physical pain.

I know that aging is a part of life and all but it is still a hard reality for me to accept, especially remembering someone from being in great shape to the way my aunt is right now.

Aging is a tradeoff for youth, but it would be nice if we could age in a pain-free manner. As much as I know and understand deterious alleles, tradeoffs to advantageous genes and all, but this process of experiencing seeing relatives age is difficult. Plus today's rainy weather did not help my mood.

Life is fragile and we must be more than greetful for the health that we have.

I will be thinking about my aunt all day tomorrow.