I got this picture of my Great Grandma from my little brother Ian. He’s doing a project in school on our family and got it from our grandma. When I look at it I’m just blown away at the fact that I even knew her. Ian never met her, I don’t think. This picture makes her look like a real “lindy bopper” or whatever they used to say. She looks like she was stylish and fun. Like my wife almost, in a way. Man, mortality is depressing and weird and sobering all at the same time, isn’t it?
I used to go over to her house and watch her television. I remember one time sitting in her dining room, eating hard candy left over from christmas and crossing my eyes at this plastic crochet thing she had. If you looked at it one way it’s just a bunch of blocks. If you looked at it another way it says “Jesus”. Which I guess is a pretty good metaphor for all of life, really.
I don’t remember much of her. Just the hard twisty half mint candy, the Jesus eye trick, being bored at her house, and watching the bbc version of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, which was probably the most exciting thing I ever did when I was there. There were never any kids or anything to play with, or anything to do besides practicing with a two pronged stick as a dowell rod and trying to find water deposits in the front yard.
She was so old when she died. 93? 94? She used to lay in the nursing home all day. I thought it was weird how many different TBN shows she would watch and how she would ask my mom about them and expect her to comment and how she would but I knew my mom didn’t mean what she said. Otherwise, mom never “faked it” and it was weird to see her lie. One time my mom said, “She wants to die.” and it made me really sad. Mom explained that when great grandpa died it made her so sad that she didn’t really want to live. Whenever I was there, at her house, before she was in the nursing home, I was sad for her. Or maybe it was just a selfish boredom, but either way it always put me in a somber mood. I wish I could have known her better, or so they always say.
I’ve been a pal bearer 5 times in my life. I was too young to carry her casket.
