This is a photo of my grandma. She was a remarkable woman. As with many women of her generation, "the greatest generation", she was incredibly strong. This was our last Christmas together.
No frills, no fuss - just pure, honest beauty. She was a WWII vet, retired from Mare Island, the mother of three boys, the step-mother of one girl, grandmother to 6 and great-grandmother to 10. It's impossible to list the countless "strays" she helped raise, animal and human alike.
I wasn't a stray, but she certainly helped raise me. I grew up only a couple of blocks from her house and could basically see her anytime I wanted. Then, when my marriage broke up, I returned to Vallejo and lived in a house less than a block up the same street as her. She always meant safety to me - even as an adult. I lost her last November and I just can't seem to find a way to feel anchored anymore.
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I'd love it if you all would tell me about your grandmas too...
3 comments:
I didn't have a close relationship with my grandparents at all. I would have liked to, but my mother moved us across the country when we were young, prohibiting relationship building severely. I always looked forward to them visiting, but it was never more than once a year. As they got older and were done traveling my mom's parents moved here to Benicia. I was already in college when they came and my relationship with my mother was so poor at that time that I didn't see much of them either and it was expected for the grandchildren to make all the effort to come to them. It makes me very sad when I think about it now....had I been more mature at the time maybe I could have spent my time fostering a relationship with them for the few years I had left. When my grandmother got her last stroke she became bedridden and unable to speak. My grandfather died before I moved back to the Bay Area of liver cancer...it was shortly after that my grandmother had her stroke. We only had a few short months of her being healthy after I married and returned to spend time with her...almost a cruel joke...knowing what I know now, I would go back and change it. My husband's grandmother is 90 something. She is amazing and I always told her she was my hero...vibrant and full of life. I hope to keep a positive outlook like her as I grow older...and always look to forgive and see the good in people as she has.
thanks for sharing about your grandma.
Carolyn, your grandma was beautiful at all ages!
Alice Peavley Cross Lentz, my paternal grandma was born in 1912 in the backwoods of Kentucky. She didn't complete 8th grade and was semi-literate her entire life. She married at 16 and had a baby (my aunt). Her husband was killed, like many men of his generation, in a coal mine accident. She married my scoundrel of a sweet-talking, drinkin', gamblin' grandpa. He left her a short time later, after she had my dad. She worked for many years as a cook for coal miners and a waitress. During WWII she worked in an Autolite sparkplug factory in Detroit. She spent my father's childhood traveling between jobs (and men?) in Toledo, Detroit and Barbourville, KY. She had a way of finding more scoundrel men, eventually marrying a real bastard, Leo. When she was in her late 50's living on a farm in Ohio we'd visit during the summer. She had no indoor plumbing, so the visits were memorable for us. True to form, Leo burned down their house and farm for the insurance money. Into her 70's and 80's she cared for him faithfully, until she began to fear for her life. He'd gotten ill with cancer and she worried he was going to kill her, before killing "hisself". She left her evil husband as an 82 year old women. Bless her heart, she worked hard her whole life and lived in a great deal of fear. This fear was amplified in her last years to the point of dementia. What I will remember her as...is a survivor. I don't get far in feeling sorry for myself before I think of the difficulties my granny lived through. Her son, my dear dad, grew up to value education as a part of the American Dream. As you may know, my dad complete college thanks to the GI bill and went on to complete an MA and PhD. He is a published author, whose writing his mother would never be able to understand. I was raised valuing education as a woman as my ticket to self-reliance. Too long of a story...but I guess 90 year old people have a long story to tell. Thanks for the opportunity!
I lived with my grandparents when I was in elementary school. My grandmother used to wake me and my cousins early in the morning to make sure that we all showered before going to school. She would wake us up in order from youngest to oldest. She told me when I was older that she got us up first so there would always be hot water when we showered. I can only remember her as having gray hair. I can also remember the day when I outgrew her because I went to hug her and her head went against my chest. I hadn't realized how small she was until that day. She always seemed bigger than life to me. One thing that I remember most about her was that she couldn't go to sleep with dishes in the sink. It could be 2 in the morning and you'll hear the sink running. It's funny how you mention the anchor thing because when she passed away it seemed that way for my family (cousins, uncles, aunts....). For me, it became apparent that it was someone elses turn to be the anchor. I think you would make an excellent anchor.
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