Is it worth it?

Xavier is a fifty nine year old central government employee who retired from official duty last March. All his life he has been waiting for his retirement, which he planned to spend reading all the classics in English literature he never found time to read. He has two sons who are living in England working in different multinational corporations for the last five years.

Mary and Sara are very similar in many ways. Both of them spend most of their time sleeping. And when they're not, they're a handful. They talk the entire time they're awake, which mostly doesn't make any sense. They ask the same questions again and again, and cry most of the time. It has been very difficult for Xavier to spend his dream retirement with these two around. They fall sick all the time, and lie awake most nights crying and talking rubbish. For an old man like Xavier, who finds it difficult taking care of himself, tending to these two is a nightmare.

Xavier doesn't like Mary's presence in the house. Her repeated questions irritates him, and he ignores her rubbish talks bluntly. He finds it a pain to take care of her when she's sick, and wished she was gone. He gets angry and shouts at her almost everyday. But he loves Sara. He would always spend time with her, talk to her and never get bored, He wakes up every night Sara cries, and would spend time with her till she goes back to sleep, even when he ignores Mary's cries completely. Retirement has been difficult for Xavier than he thought.

Mary is Xavier's eighty one year old mother. She has been in bed ever since she had a stroke two years ago. Sara is his grand daughter. She turned one a couple of months ago. She has been staying with her grandfather ever since she was born. She'll go to her parents in England next month when her documents for travel gets approved by the embassy, and most probably will never come back.

Old people have become a burden to most these days. Fathers and mothers who have spent most of their lives taking care of you, saving money for you, giving you a good education, looking after you, and showing you the right way to lead a good life suddenly become a nuisance in your life. They're a difficulty you want to live without. You send them to an old age home, and visit them once in two months if possible because they become a hindrance to your daily life. And they had sacrificed their whole lives for your happiness. Doesn't it seem obvious that the kid you're preferring over your old mother will put you in the same old age home someday? Do we love and cherish each and every moment together with our kids to finally end up in an old age home, and spend the last years of our lives with other unfortunate people whose kids abandoned them?

Is the life we live abandoning them worth it at the end?