there is a moment i will never forget when grandpa and i visited the nursing home to visit grandma and we saw her through the glass, no contact allowed, and she had not been able to speak for months, and she had not been able to recognize us for months, and i could see the light in her eyes fading, the will to live, fading, nothing we could do to grasp onto it, and i wondered what she would live for, laying in bed all day, staring at the ceiling, i wondered if she remembered all the moments of her life, or if her mind was an empty slate, but she saw my grandpa and could not take her eyes off him, she motioned her hands toward him, as if saying please, take my hand, and she could not keep the tears from falling, and in that moment i knew what her last words were, even if she could never speak them out loud, and her last words i will cherish forever:
this is what love is, my child