My very important person in my life and always has been, my grandmother. I lost my Grandmother in 2010 at the age of 80 due to the heart disease. She was my first school where I got a chance to learn about love, sympathy, discipline and hard working. She was very cultured and well-managed lady. She was always taking care of someone or something. She had a huge heart for animals and birds. She was what we could call the star of our family because she kept us all up, in our times of hardships and made us all laugh. She lived for 24 years and a few months after my grandfather passed back in 1986.
Our society is a patriarchal society. I am related with one of the families of the patriarchal society who has the privilege of power, politics, and wealth. My grandmother was a housewife but she had a huge connection with society. Traditional agricultural and livestock farming was common at that time. Nowadays, I became a trustee of feminism in my matured age, but I could understand why feminist movement was necessary from the eyes of my grandmother in my early childhood. Before the age of 70, my Grandma was very healthy and strong.
Once she got faint and we took her in a hospital at that time doctor found some problems in her heart. The doctor suggested us that the issue was not big due to age. As Wister and McPherson (2014) mention that aging involves a process of change, from birth to death, in our interacting sensory, physiological, and psychological systems (p. 66).
She never had a heart stroke but a major change in her health occurred in 2009 when the doctor suggested that she had a serious soiling in the heart. Among the many physiological changes that occur with age, the most visible are those in the cardiovascular system: there is a decrease in maximum attainable heart rate, a decrease in maximum cardiac output and stroke volume, and an increase in blood pressure (Wister & McPherson, 2014, p. 71). I would like to connect with the theories that would best help understand my grandmother transition and change in her life are Biological theories of aging and Activity Theory. Biological theories deal with the anatomic and physiologic changes occurring with age and Activity theory is associated with people achieve a positive self-image, social integration, and satisfaction with life (Tong, Class note 2017). My grandmother’s health issue in late life was the result of her growing age and organism. In her entire life, she lived with the strong connection with the society and her family members. Her family participation and involvement for positive life attitude were same described as activity theory.
. References:Tong, H. (2017). Class 02 Theories of Aging Powerpoint slides.
Retrieved from https://learn.macewan.caWister, A. V. ; Mcpherson, B.
D. (2014). Individual aging: Physical and psychological change across the life course. In Aging as a social process: Canadian perspectives (6th ed.) (pp. 66 -92). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.
