My last living grandparent went home to Jesus this morning. I sure hope I get Grandma Mamie's genes-- she was 95! She was hard working, sassy, and mostly... she was there. She was there for berry picking trips. She was there at 5 a.m., sitting at the dining table drinking coffee and reading the newspaper, when Mom and Dad were out of town. The smell of french toast and bacon would pull me out of bed and downstairs at the ungodly hour every time. She'd greet me with a, "Just getting up, are you?" and a chuckle-ish kind of smile. She was there for all of the big events--graduations, weddings, and whatnot. She was there to teach me how to play Pinochle--never mind the fact that she cheated by pretending to visit the M&M jar but really sneaking a peek at my partner's cards for each round of bidding. ;0) (Hey, it was encouraging to start off on a winning streak!) She was there with a tin of homemade cookies--peanut butter, pinwheels, the works--every Christmas, with a $10 bill tucked inside. She was there to sell me her mint condition 1980 AMC Concord after I totalled the family car in the early 90s. She was there to paint my nails when I was 5, and to lecture me about not leaving dirty dishes in the sink--after she'd done them for me, of course--when I was 25. She was there with dried fruit in the brownish purple glass canisters, and tall glasses of milk on the vinyl-covered table all of her days...
I'm going to digress here, and confess what was probably the greatest deception of my life: Grandma, please forgive me! Once, when I was in college, I came home for a visit, and you gave me sugared orange rind. You insisted that I try it. I did. And I could hardly keep the little nibble down. You said it tasted like candy. You lied. ;0) Knowing your hard-and-fast rule about finishing everything, I hid the rest in my pocket, and sent it swimming in the bay later that day, when Bud took me down for a visit to his boat. I have felt guilty ever since, because I saw first hand how frugal, and yet how generous you were, all your life. Nothing went to waste. I will always remember the braided rugs that decorated your home inside and out--the ones you made from plastic bread bags, and taught me how to make. If your biography was made required reading for our country, I daresay our financial woes would be history in short order! ;0) You really knew how to live, and live generously, with so little.
I will always cherish the lime green quilt Grandma made for me, with puppy dogs and kitty cats on it. (She made a unique one for each and every grand kid.) She was the quintessential Grandma, and I am so, so blessed to have had her in my life. There is so much more I could say about my Grandma Mamie, but in honor of her memory, I'm going to quit typing for now, and go do my dishes!
Grandma: Say hi to Bud and Buffy, and we'll see you soon!
