Granny
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:59 am
In the Bible we're told that the value of a good woman is far above rubies. Such a woman left my life this week, the victim of time and cruel Alzheimer's. She was 82. Granny wasn't actually related to me, but was the grandmother of my best friend. I spent so much time at his house when we were growing up that at some point, I started calling her "Granny," too.
Granny endured a particularly difficult life. Soon after giving birth to a daughter, she was widowed at the young age of 18, losing her first husband in a tragic coal mine explosion. Several years later she married a second time to another good man, but cancer took his life a few short years later. This is a woman who might have every right to be bitter - yet, I can't remember a time when she wasn't smiling.
Granny's house was the final stop after a neighborhood basketball game, and her kitchen was always stocked with food and drinks that she bought specifically for her grandson and for us. Once my mother fussed at me for eating and drinking so much there - this was a lady on a fixed income, she said, and I shouldn't be eating and drinking her groceries. So the next time I was there, I refused Granny's offer of anything to drink, and it worried her - I must be sick, she thought. Repeatedly she asked if I wanted anything, until finally my friend told her why I wasn't accepting. That was the only time I can remember her ever being angry with any of us. "I buy that food for you kids to have when you're here, if you don't eat it will go to waste, and it's a sin to waste food." I never refused anything there again.
Tomorrow morning I will have the honor of helping to carry Granny to her final resting place. Since I believe in Heaven, and I believe that Heaven is a place where good people go to spend Eternity, I believe that Granny is there. I believe that her body is strong, her mind is clear, and that she is smiling and happy, just as I remember her.
Goodbye, Granny.
Granny endured a particularly difficult life. Soon after giving birth to a daughter, she was widowed at the young age of 18, losing her first husband in a tragic coal mine explosion. Several years later she married a second time to another good man, but cancer took his life a few short years later. This is a woman who might have every right to be bitter - yet, I can't remember a time when she wasn't smiling.
Granny's house was the final stop after a neighborhood basketball game, and her kitchen was always stocked with food and drinks that she bought specifically for her grandson and for us. Once my mother fussed at me for eating and drinking so much there - this was a lady on a fixed income, she said, and I shouldn't be eating and drinking her groceries. So the next time I was there, I refused Granny's offer of anything to drink, and it worried her - I must be sick, she thought. Repeatedly she asked if I wanted anything, until finally my friend told her why I wasn't accepting. That was the only time I can remember her ever being angry with any of us. "I buy that food for you kids to have when you're here, if you don't eat it will go to waste, and it's a sin to waste food." I never refused anything there again.
Tomorrow morning I will have the honor of helping to carry Granny to her final resting place. Since I believe in Heaven, and I believe that Heaven is a place where good people go to spend Eternity, I believe that Granny is there. I believe that her body is strong, her mind is clear, and that she is smiling and happy, just as I remember her.
Goodbye, Granny.
Thanks for sharing Dlb. A great tribute. *bows*
