I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my grandma. I finally realized why - it’s been almost exactly six years since she died. Her birthday is also December 12. So I’ve had Grandma on my mind.
I had a unique relationship with my grandma (this is my mother’s mom). I was the only grandchild of six that spent weeks with my grandparents during summers. My cousins never did, and neither did my brothers or my sister. Just me. 
I never thought about why that was, but looking back, now I wonder. My mother never quite got along with her mother because she never respected my grandmother’s choices. Let me say that my grandfather cheated and she forgave him, but my mother never did and she could never respect that her mother did.
Somehow I developed a close relationship with my grandmother and was able to go visit with them for weeks each summer. I knew all their friends, I knew how to play shuffleboard, and I knew my grandfather liked cheddar cheese in his lasagna with pickled beets on the side. :huh_tb:
My Grandma is the reason my husband and I were able to buy our first house (she gave us part of the downpayment), but she died within two months of us buying it. She died from an infection that set in while recovering from a vein issue in her leg. So it was unexpected, she was in a rehab facility. I talked to her once while she was there, and two days later, she died.
I’m missing her and thinking about all the things she taught me and gave me. I like to think she’s an angel watching over me. She loved angels and very firmly believed they existed - she had experience once during WWII that convinced her of that. I encouraged her to write her life story - I wanted to write a book about it. She started, but never finished. I have all her handwritten journals, but I haven’t read them since she died. Perhaps I ought to start reading them and remembering my Grandma for the strong woman she was, and the strong woman she helped me to become.
November 16th, 2005
Hey Beth,
by Janice Perrodin November 17th, 2005 at 6:02 pmI was close to both of my Grandmothers, but especially my maternal “Grammy”. We lived down the street from her and I would sit and listen to her stories for hours on end. Grammy had ten children (four of whome preceded her in death) and her husband was killed in a logging accident. I can’t imagine dealing with so much loss (five family members in eleven years) and yet my Mother did also, plus she’s now the only one left! Grammy made the best chocolate chip cookies and all my friends used to follow me to her house to get a cookie. I was living in So. California when she died and didn’t make it to the funeral. I went through family photos when I was home last month and brought home several of her as they brought back so many good memories. :smile2_tb: JaniceP
Yeah, grandmas are so special, Janice. There are so many things that will remind me of her. Someday I want to write her book and call it “My Mother’s Choices”.
by Beth November 17th, 2005 at 7:27 pmBeth,
by Jeanmarie Hamilton November 18th, 2005 at 6:23 pmI was close to my maternal grandmother too. She’s the reason I’ve always wanted to write. She’d gather us around her at nap time or bed time when we stayed overnight with her, and tell us stories about her life and Texas family. She also had made up stories about some zoo animals that we loved. Those stories were to teach us how to be kind and always contained an adventure. :smile2_tb:
I draw on the stories about her parents and grandparents, and my grandfather’s father, in writing my western historicals. Reading the short journal my grandmother started before she died, makes me long for her presence, but it also teaches me about life in her times. :smile1_tb:
Jeanmarie