Backbreaking Grandparents

A one-hour bus ride extended to four due to the liquid streets that felt more like a gondola ride in Venice than a highway in Asia. I stepped off the bus from Bangkok and landed on a dust-encrusted road in Ayutthaya, Thailand. My first vision was piles of debris, which left a putrid stench loitering in the air. I pursued my housing and walked through a maze of mattresses drying in the driveway with a moldy odor ensuing me. A muddy water line taller than me covered the building as if to say “Flood wuz here” like graffiti on a toilet stall. The water line was a reminder of the cruelest flood in fifty years that submerged the city in motionless fluid for weeks. Despite the chaotic scene on both sides of the entrance gate, the owners of “The Grandparent’s House” welcomed me warmly. The “Grandparents” are a brood of five generations of kinfolk who live and work at the guesthouse. Over the next three months, I observed the clan working fiercely like ants marching to transform their means of existence into an abode superior than prior to the flood. Never giving a moment to be depressed or to feel sorry for themselves they chiseled, refurbished, and re-landscaped. Sleeping in on Saturday became a luxury of the past as the cacophony of jack hammering indicated a wake up call for guests. Capital was not the motivation, but a deep passion for Ayutthaya and a wish for travelers to value the beauty and history of the city. The Granparents want visitors to leave feeling a connection between the disparaging past and the city’s promising future. From this resilient family, I absorbed that when life gets you down it is a tactic of the world giving you an opportunity to construct a transformation for the better. A determined work ethic is built when desire and passion dominate because it is no longer a job but a way of life. I first handedly witnessed a family recreate their reality through fortitude and if I put half as much effort into my aspirations I’ll be efficacious too.