My Grandma Lillian

Now that I have a child I want to share him with everyone (which is maybe why I started a blog, with the added side effect that our children (yes, Adrian, plural) will have a record of their beginnings).  For some reason that is somewhat unexplainable I started missing my Grandma Lillian.  It brought me to tears to think about how she is missing out on Teddy and just thinking about how much she would have loved to see him.  Instead of reading bedtime stories last night, I told Teddy stories about her and all the things I could remember doing with her as a child. I thought it might be best to relay some of those here for him to treasure later.

If you know me, then you know I LOVE TV, especially reality TV.  It has been said that today's reality TV is the new soap opera, and for years, I have LOVED soap operas.  I grew up on a little Y&R, Days of our Lives, Another World, Santa Barbara, Passions, and probably some others I am forgetting.  I can also remember my Dad telling me how these will make me dumb and dumber and now Adrian repeats the same thing about my reality TV shows (peas of a pod I tell you).  Well, I like to think of it as an homage to Grandma.  You see, Grandma was another loyal and devoted soap opera watcher.  When she was babysitting me, I could not even ask for something during her "stories" because they were on and she had to know what would happen next (as if the cheating, lying, killing, reincarnating, kidnapping, and weddings would change in a days time).  So of course, at the tender age of 4, I was hooked.  But then, sometimes I had another babysitter who watched different stories than my Grandma and I got addicted to those more than Grandma's.  We only had 1 TV in our house at that time (can you even imagine a time when a house only had 1 TV?) and given my age, I was not going to be in control of that remote.  I began to whine and make Grandma miss part of her stories.  She told my parents that if she was going to keep babysitting me, I had to have my own TV to watch my stories while she watched hers....and my parents capitulated.  So at the age of 4 I had my very own TV.  I will always be grateful to Grandma for that!

Grandma, at least by the time she was taking care of me, was not so into cooking.  I cannot really blame her, given she had 9 children of her own, plus helped raise several of the 30+ grandchildren she had.  At that time, there was a restaurant in town called Woody's.  Grandma and I would walk there (she did not drive, not because she couldn't, she just did not like it.  I too prefer to be chauferred and also attribute this to Grandma), eat whatever we wanted and charge it to Daddy (and by charge I don't mean on a credit card, I mean they actually would just run a tab and send you the bill at the end of the month).  It was great because I was a super heavy kid (some things never change) and Grandma would let me eat whatever I wanted; burgers, fries, milkshakes, etc.  It was always so much fun with her.

For years Grandma had 2 jobs:  she worked at the public library and wrote a column in our local newspaper.  For a woman without a high school diploma, she certainly had a way with words.  I used to love getting a card from her, reading it as if it were a novel and thinking how special I was to have a card from her.  She also taught me a love of books.  I can remember going to the library and reading and reading and reading, which I also attribute to my mother. They both would encourage me to read, and even as much as I read for work, I still love to read a book for pleasure.  I also take a special joy in reading to Teddy and eveytime I am near a bookstore, I buy him another book.  There is something special about owning books and it makes me think of Grandma and my mother everytime.

Grandma had a sharp tongue and did not mince her words.  (I know, I know, apple does not fall far from the tree.)  It was always funny to see what she would say.  I remember the day I was leaving for college and we stopped to stay with her.  She was so proud of me.  Towards the end of her life, she and Aunt June would come to Jonesville for a couple of weeks at a time to stay with my Mom.  Aunt June and I spent one of these trips canning a bunch of vegetables from the garden.  Even though Grandma was not really able to help, she still "directed" us on the finer points and made her preferences known.

When she passed away in February of 2004, Aunt June (blessed saint who took care of Grandma for years through many illnesses) found some really neat things I had forgotten that I sent Grandma.  She had a letter where I met this author and I wrote her that even though I liked interviewing the author, I wanted to be an attorney (I went wrong very early on you see).  She kept that letter for almost 20 years and I have no idea why, but I am so glad she did.

I said at Teddy's Christening how much I missed her but that I knew she was still working her magic.  She was truly a special lady, instrumental in my life and in so many memories of my childhood and early adulthood.  Love you Grandma!