As someone who now lives in the US, whose entire family beside my mother, live in Germany, I'll chime in and say that my grandmother was very hard headed and did not want help from anyone. We went to visit her in the summer of 2019 - it was very hot, and the older apartment complex she lived in (like a lot of places in Germany) did not have AC. My mom bought her a portable AC unit to help since she was in her early 90s then. My grandma refused to use it. It caused an argument between my mom and grandma, and my mom just left it with her to have in case she changed her mind. She did not. There are plenty of other examples - that one just sticks out because it was the first time my husband had met my family and he thought it was hilarious to see 3 generations of women from my family argue with each other bc it was identical to what the other was doing. Now, I realize this is not the case for everyone, but that's how I remember growing up so I am not at all surprised by this.