Pain, Perseverance and Helen Zellermayer

The year 1944, is an age the world will never forget. Where the cost of a loaf of bread was 10 cents, the year that D-Day had taken place and the Holocaust had finally come to an end. September 6th of that year, in the country of Romania, an amazing woman was born… My grandmother Helen Zellermayer. Now, I am sharing the impact this great woman has had on my life and so many others across the world.

A restaurant named United Bakers was where my grandmother worked for many, many decades. Helen was the manager at the establishment and was the perfect example of a hard worker. This skill is often sought after, though not attained. It is not defined by the amount of work they do but how they do it. As a young boy, I sat in awe and marveled at how she always went the extra mile to ensure everyone’s happiness. My grandmother is the most selfless and determined person I know today.

From the beginning, she would take my brother and I around the restaurant introducing us to all the customers. We were all a big family. Everyone knew her as a bubbly, happy individual that loved being at work. Then, everything changed...

The pain. The pain turned my world upside down. My grandmother had been telling our family that her right leg was hurting terribly whenever she settled into a chair and attempted to get back up. Imagine this, a loved one that has been in your life since the beginning, struggling with simple day-to-day tasks. The reality is heartbreaking.

We had to find out what was happening... In 2016, my grandmother got diagnosed with Hip Osteoarthritis, and this diagnosis hit her like a wrecking ball.

Due to her active lifestyle at work and home, she never expected anything to this extent.

Her energy levels were like that of a cheetah, as she whizzed by on the way to the next task. Hip Osteoarthritis was a condition that turned the cheetah into a turtle… It was terrifying. Her pain was unbearable and felt by everyone in the family. The happy, bubbly personality was replaced with anger and bitterness due to the unseen consequences she was faced with. Work was my grandmother’s way of feeling useful. Her diagnosis ended her happiness which came from being at United Bakers…

It was hard for her to come to terms with her disability, but with love and support, she persevered.

It was time. The week had come, the week before the surgery. Mixed emotions filled my home. Happiness, stress and some relief that the painful journey my sweet grandmother had to endure was finally coming to a halt. The surgery was scheduled for September 11th, 2017… Just five days after her birthday. Her 73rd birthday celebrations was a joyous occasion, but it felt like a going away party. The knowledge that she would not be able to return to work was a heavy weight she carried on her shoulders. It seemed to her as if everyone at the party would never see her again. As we counted the days until the operation, we were all hopeful that this was the right step on her path to recovery. Due to Osteoarthritis, the medication my Grandmother was on had significant side effects. It helped her physically, but it hurt the family emotionally. The memory loss, lack of appetite, weight loss to start. Memory loss had my family and I in great stress and made us very tired, she would repeat the same question for hours on end... We also had to remind her to eat or to do simple tasks. I was at the blunt end of that, my mother and I are the ones that my grandmother trusts most in my house… She hadn't noticed the stress she put me through, and I made it seem like I was against her when I was just trying to help… it had brought me and my emotions down and it was heartbreaking to see.

September 11, 2017, the day had come; her surgery was at 9 am, she was awake at 5 am to prepare for the week ahead. I had been half awake that morning and all I could hear was crying I was too tired to see what was happening and went back to bed. I woke up 2 hours later to get ready for school, I had been thinking about how the surgery was going all morning, my mom had been texting me to keep me up to date. It was done at 11 am. The surgery went well and she was on the road to recovery. We visited her at the hospital the day after her surgery, she seemed okay, she was still very scared, and nervous although she had been done. We go out for dinner for a couple of hours. We get back to the hospital and see that the nurse is in her room, she had gotten up, without help, after a hip surgery, pulling out her IV. She had no idea where she was. She kept calling for me, my mom and my aunt, over and over. We seemed to think it was the painkillers they gave her for post-op, given her history with those meds. A few days later she came home...

Almost a week after her surgery she came home. Once she came home we already saw how hard it would be to help her get back to a healthy state, physically and mentally. We noticed the pain meds had affected her like a piece of her brain was cut out. She still has short-term memory loss, but not to the extent that it was with the meds. Almost a month later, all she wants to do is work, do laundry, do dishes and clean. But the doctor gave her specific orders not to do anything that strains the legs of energy. She has that type of work habit, she's not the type of 70-year-old that should ever be in a retirement home, she would hate living there. There is no way that this woman will stop working. Even with her arthritis, she had continued to work. If a 70-year-old can outwork anybody younger than them they need to rethink their work habits. There were a number of people she had affected at her job, I personally don't think any person will forget her. This was a great woman that had her whole life with work taken away with a surgery. Although she keeps her perseverance to keep working, she simply cannot. For that I am the one that feels sorry she cannot do what she once loved to do.