I should preface this by telling you all a little bit about my grandad; he is the most loving, kind, bubbly person I have ever known. He is not perfect by any means but to me he is one of my closest father figures as I have had some problems with my dad.

When the Great Depression hit New Zealand and his father died he had to quit school to support his family. He has helped all three of his kids with loans or jobs and every Christmas he would dress up as Santa and spoil us rotten. He loves to joke and smile and I’m pretty sure all my friends like him more than me, which I’m not even mad about as I don’t think I’ll ever be half the person he is.

So my mum and my grandad went to visit my uncle to deliver some stuff, I think it was just some junk for him to sort through or something. My grandad takes every chance he can to see his grandkids, especially since it’s been difficult to see anyone the last few months due to Covid.

My male cousin is hanging out with his girlfriend but comes down to say hi and chat for a bit. When my mum asks where my female cousin is my uncle just says that she’s out with friends and doing stuff. My grandad is a bit disappointed, as she has had probably the least amount of contact with him out of all of us grandkids. She went overseas to LA for several years, but even when she came back she’s only seen him a handful of times. I suspect he thinks she doesn’t care enough to see him and I know that must hurt him a lot.

Cut to them leaving, and they’re standing on the driveway saying goodbye to my uncle, when suddenly a car pulls up and a dude gets out with a paper bag that has my cousins name on it, the one who was meant to be out. My mum clicks right away and asks is this so and so’s Uber Eats, and my uncle says yes before realising what the implication is. I believe they left without any further words, and from what my mum has said my grandpa is absolutely crushed.

I’m so fucking upset and angry at this whole situation and at her, I honestly can’t believe she couldn’t even muster the effort to walk to the door and say hello. I actually feel like there’s been a weight on my chest since I found out, my grandad is very old and he should be treated with love so knowing this happened is giving me anxiety. I used to go and see him every second day after work, but I’m living overseas right now so there’s literally nothing I can do except write him a nice letter and try and FaceTime with him next time he’s at my mum’s place.

Thank you all for reading, I hope your day is going better than mine, and for god’s sake visit/call/text your parents/grandparents people!!

TL;DR My cousin couldn’t be assed getting out of her to go and see her grandad, so my uncle pretended she wasn’t home, only for her Uber Eats to arrive and now my grandad is very upset.