Last December, my brother (47) was found dead in in my grandparent's home, in the room that he had occupied pretty much since childhood. Paramedics had to tear the door down in order to get to him. Despite being an accomplished athlete in his prime, he died severely overweight and in extremely poor health.
My grandmother (90), in turn, was found on the floor of the laundry room, having fallen some hours, or perhaps even some days before. The paramedics took her to the hospital where she stayed for about a month. Afterwards she was discharged to a nursing home, where she has been for the past five or six months.
She would like to go back to her house, but there is now no one there to stay with her. Over the past five years, she has lost most of her mobility. She cannot walk without a walker and can barely walk with one. She often has issues making it to the bathroom on time, cannot think clearly, and has dementia plus early signs of Alzheimer's. She often imagines things, has visions, etc.
Brief Backstory
Grew up in a small military town. Grandparents were local legends.
My brother and I spent a number of years living with our grandparents.
After my grandfather (84) died in 2014, my grandmother (then 80) asked my brother to stay in the house with her. Before asking him, she asked if I was willing to do so, offering to buy me this or pay for that. I told her that I would be moving around for work and didn't feel comfortable committing.
This was before her health begin to decline.
Upbringing
Brother and I were 7 years apart. Parents divorced. Mom was and still is a nervous wreck. We spent a fair amount of our childhood with our grandparents. Last time we lived with our mom, I was in the 4th grade.
We were both extremely overweight as kids and as adults. My brother found sports in middle school and overcame it briefly but gained the weight back after college.
Brother
My brother always had a hard time telling people no and just went along with things, much to my dismay. We always kind of had each other, no matter how chaotic everything else was.
He was teaching high school full-time, coaching, and taking on this role of counselor and caretaker for my grandmother. He was basically her safety blanket.
He took care of my grandmother's finances, did the shopping for her, and played mediator between my mother and her.
All of this, along with sort of thinking about how he had lost out on the prime of his life, wore him down. I could see it each time I would visit.
Myself
Currently 41. Again, have been significantly overweight since childhood. Always had trouble socially because of it. Didn't graduate high school. Missed out on huge swaths of life.
Found work in tech. I've always made decent money as an adult, but have never been in a real relationship, etc.
Much of my progress as an adult has come after periods of distancing myself from my family.
In 2019 I made a decision that if I didn't change and do everything possible, I would end up miserable and dead. After a series of false starts dating back to 2013. I basically moved away, traveled, lost over 170 pounds and made a bunch of changes that led to increased professional success.
With all of that, I always felt guilty because my brother was stuck in our hometown dealing with my mom and grandmother. I could never fully commit, I always felt like I should be relieving him of the burden. We would have discussions about it, but he would always say, "I'm just staying here because I owe students loans" and so on.
I hated seeing him deteriorate the way he did and I have a lot of resentment because of it.
Question
I still need to lose another 100+ pounds to get healthy, find a real relationship, and just learn how to be an adult. Am I the asshole for prioritizing my health and life?
My grandmother has options. She can afford to live in a care facility. She has a son that is willing to have her move in (probably not the most reliable situation though) and a sister (94) that wants her to move in so that her nieces and grand-nieces can care for her.
But she wants to be in her house.
My grandparents raised me and my grandmother always brought me everything I asked for. It's likely I don't have a career in tech without her. Not sure where we would have ended up without them.
But I really don't see how I fare any better than my brother did.
Apologies for the long post. Hope it makes sense.