Mary Poppins Monday: Grammy

I have had different people jumping around in my head all day, all vying for today's spot on the Mary Poppins list. I couldn't decide who I felt most passionately about blogging about until Alex brought me this picture.



"Look mommy, here's a picture of you holding Chloe and "some Grandma" holding Luke. "

In reality, that is my mom holding me, and my great-grandmother, Grammy, holding my brother Jeff. I pointed out who everyone was. Grandma Susie, check. Me, check. Jeff, check. Grammy, who's Grammy mom?

I have not done my job if my kids don't know Grammy. They should know Grammy. You should know Grammy. Allow me to introduce her to you.

Grammy was my great-grandma on my mom's side (my Nonnie's mom) and the only great-grandparent I remember.

Grammy wore her hair in signature old lady, bluish silver. She most often wore a navy blue blouse, or at least that is what I remember, particularly one with little white daisies on it. Grammy could whistle so loud that your ears would whistle along. Grammy could say the alphabet backward and she loved to recite children's poetry and sing old Shirley Temple songs.

Grammy lived in a little white stucco house with a bright red porch and red shingled roof in a little neighborhood in Southgate, California. Her house was a little patch of heaven nestled cozily right there in the middle of gangsterville. I loved to be at Grammy's house.

There was always a bag of sugar-coated candy orange slices on the counter, a game of solitaire laid out on the kitchen table, and cookies cooling.

At one time Grammy was the cookie queen. As she got older her ability to measure flour suffered and the cookies became more decorative than edible, but I was always happy to have a bag of those cookies on the top of my microwave. It meant I had just been with Grammy. Plus, they were quite useful in removing loose teeth.

At Grammy's we usually had root beer floats and we always sat in her giant roller coaster chair. You pushed a button and it would tip you forward on to the floor. In reality it was an old lady chair, used to leverage Grammy on to her feet. Of course, I never saw it functioning in that capacity, as we never allowed her to sit there during our visits. We sat in that chair and thumbed through the stack of Star magazines that sat in the corner, occasionally pushing the magic button and dumping ourselves on to the floor.

After we were up to date on our outrageous celebrity gossip, we spent time going through patterns and spinning the mannequin in the sewing room. Grammy was a gifted seamstress. I took a clothing class, just sure that I would be the heir apparent, but I found that her talent was not in my genes, or in my jeans. Grammy could really sew, and to keep us busy while she worked she would send us off to play find the missing thimble. She always had one mysteriously missing thimble and she urgently needed us to find it. We searched and searched and celebrated when we found it. She was always so grateful for it's safe return. Do you think my kids would fall for the old I lost my thimble routine?

When the thimble was found, it was dress up time. Grammy had the most fantastic old jewelry, but for some reason my favorite piece was a braided copper bracelet that was used to relieve arthritic pain. I wanted it so badly, but she needed it. One day when I was over she told me she wanted me to take it. My happiness meant more to her than her pain.

I learned valuable life lessons from Grammy. Grammy was a woman of great faith. She was Catholic, hardcore, but she was never judgmental or unkind about anyone else's beliefs. At one point in time I found myself without any friends at all. I had just started junior high school. Grammy asked me about my new school and my new friends. I confided in her. I hadn't made any friends. I had been sitting alone each day for months. She promised me that she would pray for me and she promised that I would make a new friend. The next week a girl named Carol approached me and asked me to sit with her and her friends for no apparent reason. We had a class together but we had never talked. I know that she was sent because of my grandmother's faithful plea. I learned that it does not matter where you worship, or what specific religious tenets you subscribe to. God loves us all. He listens to us all, and He answered my grandmothers prayer. I am so grateful that Grammy prayed for me.

I loved my Grammy. She was one of the kindest, most delightful people I have known.

Grammy started to get a little bit senile around her 90th birthday. She ended up falling and having circulation problems that eventually forced her away from her little home and in to an assisted living facility. She had her leg amputated, but sometimes she would forget that it was gone. She would talk about going home as soon as she was up and walking about again. She couldn't walk, and she couldn't go home. We would just play along with her though, because inside we all wanted the same thing. Grammy home, baking, sewing, smiling, reciting poetry and reading trashy magazines. Eventually she started forgetting everyone, even Nonnie, who saw her every day. Sometimes Jeff and I would stop by her hospital on the way home from high school and she would ask us again and again who we were. She usually called us Susie and Jack (my mom and uncle). She would show us pictures of her loved ones, sometimes they were of us. She would tell us about 1930 and 1950 and 1970 but she couldn't quite remember what happened yesterday.

In 1993, when I was a senior in high school, Grammy passed away at the age of 93. I cried as the finality of what I already knew to be a reality sunk in; we really weren't going back to Grammy's house. I rejoiced that she could go to a place where she could be Grammy again. I hope she is singing Animal Crackers in heaven right this minute, and I hope to have some cookies and orange slices waiting when I join her.

There, now you know Grammy. Isn't she the best? I am off to tell my kids all about her.