Wouldn't it be nice if all parents did make decisions based on those things? I know my sons are not Dylan, and I keep saying that we can't compare how one person would feel about something to how another person would. I'm going to do it anyway.
My mother was diagnosed with "terminal cancer" when my older son was 5 and I was pregnant with my younger one. When they found that she'd had lung cancer and it had already spread to her brain (a large mass that caused a lot of problems) just before Thanksgiving, they said they didn't expect her to make it to Christmas. A few Christmases came and went, and when my older son was 13 he was given the choice to spend the Holidays with my family or spend it with his father who lived close to his old friends (we didn't move as far away, but it was over 2 hours away). My mother was still alive, but had a couple of strokes that year, which they said was because of her radiation treatment. Even knowing it could be his last Thanksgiving, and later Christmas, with her, he decided at that age that he'd rather be able to go back to see friends.
When my younger son was 13, he was given the same choice. That was the year my mother (who had been in a nursing home for over a year) had another stroke, more serious than the others. She'd had many minor ones over the years, but this time she lost the ability to sit, feed herself, speak and almost everything else. Again, they didn't expect her to make it, and he chose to see friends. Two days before his 15th birthday, she did finally die. She had never recovered from that last stroke and just deteriorated steadily from that point.
Neither of the boys has ever shown nor expressed any guilt or regret about their decisions. They both said they knew they'd see her again, but it was very rare that they got a chance to see their friends for any length of time. They grieved for her loss when she died, but they also remember holidays with her cooking, talking, laughing and spoiling them more than she should have. They have other memories of her falling out of her chair, forgetting the names of people she'd known for years, "sounding like a Medicine Man chanting" when she tried to talk, and numerous other things. I'm glad that they chose to preserve their special memories, and visit with her a few days after holiday celebrations. I think kids need to be able to look back and see as many happy times as possible.
I'm just not convinced that Dylan "wanted" to spend Thanksgiving with family, especially a sick grandmother. I'm also not convinced that he wasn't looking forward to the visit and having time to spend with his lifelong friends. New friends may be great, but sometimes they pale in comparison to old friends. MOO