I thought i would tell you about my Grandma L. She was my mothers mother. When i was very little probably not much more than a year old she came to live with us because they thought my dad was going to die. She had just been widowed for the second time and my mom had 3 kids under 4.
She was my everything. She kept 2 boards by her bed so we could sit on her bed and play solitaire. We watched soap operas together. I would get to sleep with her on monday wednesday and friday and my sister slept with her on tuesday thursday and saturday (because she had a tv in her room with a clicker as she called it). But she got to sleep alone on sunday.
Every morning from the time i was in about 3rd grade until i was a senior in high school she brought us 2 pieces of toast and cocoa in bed every morning.
She was a seamstress by trade. She worked in factory's and when she retired they gave her the sewing machine. A big singer machine. It did one stitch, very fast. My sister in law has it now, i think it still works. She could sew anything. My sister got a blouse for her birthday one year and i just loved it. Grandma went to fred meyers bought some fabric, no pattern, and in an hour i had my shirt and it looked just like my sisters.
Grandma never learned to drive. She would take us on the bus to the mall. It would scare me to death because she would make me walk halfway across a 4 lane road and stand in the middle of the street to wait for the traffic to clear in the final 2 lanes then finish crossing so we could get to the bus stop. There was a lunch counter at the mall and she would buy us a hamburger. This was a big deal. They didn't have kids burgers then and we had to eat every bite. I always wanted a tulip chocolate sundae after. (Funny i have my own set of tulip sundae dishes they just make ice cream taste better). She would sip her coffee as i ate. I was so full tears would be streaming down my face. I would look up at her and she would say "you ordered it you eat it". So we would sit until all was finished while she sipped her coffee.
Grandma would make the most beautiful quilts. But we never went to the store to buy fabric we cut up our old clothes and kept the scraps from when she sewed for us. I still have one of those quilts. She would have a quilt up and we would make a fort under it. When we got bigger we helped quit. I didn't even know there was anything called a tied quilt until after i moved to Idaho.
She also taught me how to embroider. we would make embroidered pillow cases for the couples my dad would marry, and satin baby blankets for the babies my dad would baptize.
She never wore a pair of pants until just a few years before she died. She always wore a house dress and apron.
i remember one day i was being a crummy teenager and i made her cry. I told her i was sorry but i never wanted to have a feeling like that ever again. I felt horrible.i remember when i got baptized. I was afraid to tell her because she was a strong Lutheran and didn't want to make her cry ever again. So my mom told her. She asked "was she baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost?" my mom said yes. Grandma said "that's ok the rest is all man made anyway".
Del got to meet her one time. She died just a few days later and she was buried the day i got my engagement ring
I guess i thought about her today because i was telling someone about Grandmaisms. But that will be tomorrows blog,
Silly Little Things
11 years ago
