Grandma

As some of you may already know, my Grandma passed away in February after a rapid decline. One of the earliest memories I have with Grandma is going for walks through downtown Carthage. Noreen and I would run around the statue in Monument Park a few times. It seemed like she knew everyone in that town, since we were always stopping to say hello.

Since we were babies, Grandma measured our height on the side of her cupboard in the laundry room. Its fun to compare my height at certain ages with my children and see how much bigger they are!

I remember playing hours of Uno, Rummy, Hearts and Up and Down the River with Grandma. She taught me how to play Casino, a few versions of Solitaire, and Michigan Rummy. But she was the Queen of the cards.

Grandma was always a lady, and she tried to teach me the importance of being one too. She made sure that we didn’t slouch, kept our elbows off the table, chewed with our mouths closed, and didn’t blow bubbles with our gum.

Grandma was green before her time, as she always recycled our paper napkins. If our dinner napkins weren’t too soiled after our meals, she’d write our initials on them so we could reuse it for the next day.

Though I never got to see her perform, I know my Grandmother loved being in the theater. She loved to read books, and took us to the library when we visited. She was fond of wine and champagne, and watching soap operas. In the afternoons, I could always find her sitting in her chair in the kitchen watching As The World Turns or Jeopardy and working on a cross-stitch, crossword puzzle, jigsaw puzzle or a crochet or knitting project. Almost every afghan I own was a gift that she made.

Grandma was not the best cook, but she sure made a fantastic blackberry pie. She and Pop took us often to eat at the Sahara where once again they knew just about everybody in there. When I was in basic training at Fort Jackson, she sent me a big box of snickerdoodle cookies for the entire platoon to share. After weeks of Army chow, it was a wonderful treat that perked us all up.

When I was quite young, I remember asking Grandma how old she was…. for which she always responded with a mathematical equation.

I loved going to visit my Grandma. She always had the softest toilet paper in her bathroom, and she always stocked her cupboard with sugar wafer cookies for my sister and I. It was a simple thing to do, but it made me feel very special.