My sweet padlet by Krisala Bista

Elder life story information

bistak — 2025-09-03 16:16:50 UTC

Older adult's name: Dhadi

Relationship to you: Grandpa

Tentative interview dates:

a: 10/02

b: 10/29

Planned interview method: face to face

Older adult’s permission to include photos/video? Yes!

words/phrases that came to mind when you heard the words "older adult"

bistak — 2025-09-03 16:19:11 UTC

Wisdom
Gratitude
Sickness
Loneliness
Anxiety/Depression

Thank you grandpa!

bistak — 2025-11-24 19:19:21 UTC

Thank you, grandpa, for sharing such beautiful and thoughtful memories with me. I never got to sit down with you and learn so much about you and your life. I truly feel so blessed to be able to connect with you on a level no one else ever has. I now understand more about your difficulties and why it has shaped you into the person that you are today. What I have learned about older adults is that they too have had a long life. Acknowledging that and still treating them with the same dignity and respect is very important because we tend to forget that they were also young once.

Dhadi's parents

bistak — 2025-11-24 19:20:45 UTC

These were Dhadis parents, my great-grandparents! Dhadis dad passed away in 2018, a few months after my grandma (his wife). His mom passed away back in the 1980s.

Siblings!

bistak — 2025-11-24 19:22:47 UTC

Dhadi has 5 brothers. 1 brother is still in Bhutan. He also has 2 sisters, they are scattered between India and Bhutan. He recently was visited by his brother and sister-in-law all the way from Australia! Dhadi has 1 brother who lives in Tennessee and 1 brother who lives a few minutes away from him in Columbus!

Rare picture!

bistak — 2025-11-24 19:24:35 UTC

This picture was taken back at a refugee camp in Nepal. You can see Dhadi (on the left) and little me sitting on my moms lap (to the right). This was taken when I was about 4 years old.

Dhadi and Leela

bistak — 2025-11-24 21:09:06 UTC

Dhadi and Leela (my grandma) got married at the age of 9 and 13. Back then, child marriage was normalized. Since the age of 9 and 13, they were together up untill 2018. Dhadi lost his wife to lung cancer. Since then, he has been alone and fills his days by spending time with his grandkids.

Children

bistak — 2025-11-24 21:14:17 UTC

In total, Dhadi and Leela had 9 children. They had 6 sons and 3 daughters. Along with their 9 children, they have 21 grandkids. Dhadi is surrounded by immense amount of love and is is expecting a great grandchild on the way.

Dhadis timeline

bistak — 2025-11-24 21:19:14 UTC

Dhadi was born in Bhutan. A country very rich in culture and religion. He got married to my leela (my grandma) then was exiled out of the country. Together, Dhadi and leela took their 3 kids and moved over to a small country, Nepal. They built a home there and went on to have have 6 more kids. In 2012, they got approved to come to the United States. Dhadi and leela moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota with their family and spent the rest of the years there until Leela passed away in 2018. Dhadi now lives with his 3rd son and his family and spends most days with his grandkids or walking around the neighborhood talking to people.

Struggles

bistak — 2025-11-24 21:22:26 UTC

During the interview, Dhadi mentioned a lot that he is often lonely. His mom was taken from him young and his father and wife passed a couple of months between each other. He feels an empty void inside of him since leaving Nepal and coming to a new country where he still cannot speak the language. He is always relying on other people to take him places and buy him things. He does not work so he does not have a source of income. He also mentioned how this was his first time not working. Back in Nepal, Dhadi would never be home because a lot of his times were spent working and traveling to many countries. He had many friends and family who he visited and now, he notes not a lot of them are alive anymore. He often misses the life that he once lived and is so scared of old age and getting sick.

Summary

bistak — 2025-11-24 21:26:40 UTC

Dhadi is a man of very hard work. He was always known to provide for his family and spreading love and joy throughout his kids and grandkids. He loves when we go to visit and is always willing to help us no matter what his health is like. He is trying very hard to stay healthy and strong because he doesn't want to leave his kids and grandkids. He is such an amazing person and I am so grateful that I have a grandpa like him. He is my last living grandparent and the amount of blessings and love that I receive from him is amazing! There is never a dull moment with him. I hope you got to learn a little about him.

Reflection

bistak — 2025-11-24 22:55:30 UTC

My reaction throughout the interview and assignments is filled with a lot of respect because I did not know a lot of things about my grandpa. The relationship that we had and shared throughout the interactions is something I will not forget because I don’t believe he has opened up to someone like that before.
I adapted and incorporated a lot of skill during the interview process. I actively listened and asked questions when I needed to.. I used therapeutic communication when asking about older memories because I didn’t want to bring up some thing that would make my grandpa uncomfortable. The outcome of incorporating skills when listening to someone is that they will confide in you and tell you even more about themselves.
My thoughts and feelings, it did not change from part one. The words that I had to use for wisdom, gratitude, sickness, loneliness, anxiety,/depression. I tried my best to incorporate all those things into the padlet. Also incorporate most of those words while I was interviewing my grandpa.
This experience might impact my future nursing practice because of the way that I was able to approach my grandpa. With him being in the older adult population, I was able to approach him in a good manner and asked him questions about himself and his life without interrogating him. This helped built a better connection between the two of us.