My dad never allowed us to meet grandma. He said, “Consider her dead.” Mom would stay quiet.
I always assumed she was a bad person until I started working as a nurse.During my first week at the hospital, I saw her name and her picture on the wall in the doctors’ lounge room. I froze. When I went to see her to make sure if she really was my grandma or just had the same name, she indeed was. This woman turned out to be the head of the oncology department.

For a second I was horrified. But then, everything that I thought turned out wrong. Everyone admired her for being kind and devoted, often treating patients for free. She wasn’t the bad person I’d been told about—she was an extraordinary woman. The truth was different from my dad’s version…
When he was five, Grandma returned to finish her degree. She spent long hours at the hospital, saving lives, while her husband resented her for not being a traditional housewife. By the time my dad was seven, they divorced, and his father won custody. He convinced my dad that his mother never wanted him. She tried many times to get close to him, but Dad always rejected her, and over time he had completely shut her out.
From everything I’ve seen, Grandma is a genuinely good person. I made it my mission to help my dad reconnect with her. Two years later, she’s part of our family again, and my dad finally cherishes her. It can’t replace the lost years, but it’s a start.