My little Grandma

This week, I am taking an excursion to see my Grandma.  She is 93 years old and we never know how much longer we have with her.  She's a spitfire of a woman with a stubborn streak a mile wide and a need to feed you every moment while you're with her while simultaneously commenting on how much weight you've gained since you were 19.  She's a kindhearted woman (whose filter has all but disappeared in the last decade, hence the weight comments) whose home served as a haven for most of my mother's generation of friends and mine. 

Grandma's response: Why do people insist on
taking pictures of old people? We're so wrinkled!

I've always teased Grandma and told stories about the bizarre things she has said and done (I come by these weird things honestly.  I swear it's genetic!) and I have taken her under my wing as best I could since my mom died.  She's become precious to me and makes me regret the teen and early twenty years when I was too cool to sit and visit an old lady.

The only real disagreements between her and I have been - me working in a career I didn't want to give up to have babies, and the time I told her my husband would have to make his own bed in the morning if he wanted it made so badly.  Now every time I don't make the bed, The Guy tells me he's calling Grandma to tattle.

In the last decade, Grandma has become more and more forgetful.  First it was just stories she couldn't remember telling you, so she told you them a lot.  Talking to her was like talking to a goldfish -- 15 second reset button.  However, up until the last 2 or 3 years, she lived alone and had no problem taking care of herself even if she couldn't remember her own dog's name.

Grandma is an old school lady.  Grandma is all about house and home and making friends into family.  Everyone calls her Aunt Bea and she used to know every single person, who their parents were, who they dated, and what was going on in their life.  Now, she's not entirely sure who anyone is and this frustrates her to no end.  I tell her it's more important that we remember her, but she's not convinced.  

Her health has been more precarious lately and she's been very down about it.  Between my sister and I, we call her a few times a week just to check in.  My brother and his wife went up to visit her recently too. My sister in England and my dad in Ukraine are just hoping she hangs out until they get back, but she warned them she wasn't making any promises.

I am so glad she is part of my life and that I can be part of hers. I hope she hangs around for a long time.  Knowing how stubborn she is, she will be here long after the rest of us are gone.  She won't know what's going on, but she will tell you the story about how someone keeps finishing her puzzles while she's at lunch and she's maddest because they are really good at it!

Grandma always hopes to leave an important legacy behind when she goes.  Little does she know, it's going to be in the form of a tell-all book my sister and I plan to write about her and her more outlandish enterprises.  She will haunt us both!