Memories of my grandmother. Oh where to begin. She would crotchet the most beautiful things. I would sit in amazement. It was magic to me. How could she take that ordinary yarn and turn it into something so amazing and wonderful? When I was in elementary school we were almost the same height and the same build. People would make jokes about it all the time. Like Bobbsey twins or whatever they were called. We couldn't have been that much like each other, or could we?

My first memory of my grandmother is the red fire truck she gave me for the first Christmas that we were together. She later took it away from me, and true to her word I never go it back. One of her later presents was a potato head doll. A potato head doll that I set on fire and I watched it burn. It actually tore my heart in two to do that, but I knew she had no heart, so what did it matter?

Once there was nobody around to witness such things, the real grandma would come out. At what age is a child prepared to see a monster?

My days in elementary school were filled with little joy and much heartache. Sitting in the cold bedroom at the back of the house waiting for my dad to come home. Because at least then she would be different. When I had to stay home sick from school my sister would wonder why I would bust into tears when she walked into the room. Our dad always wondered why we acted the way we did whenever he left, and when he came back. He wouldn't come into our room when he got home, and I wasn't about to voluntarily go into the living room. But at least he was home, so I could put that belt out of my mind, for awhile.

She loved to play games with me and my sister. And oh my how we did play! When she hated me she loved my sister, and vice versa. There was never enough love for the both of us at the same time. I began to hate myself when she loved me, because I knew she hated my sister. I liked it when she hated me, because at least she was treating my sister okay.

She taught me how to tie my shoes! By hitting me and calling me stupid every time I made a mistake. Let's give this woman teacher and grandma of the year.

The world is pain. It was the belt that left scars on my legs that I stare at. It is the ring that busted my mouth. The very same reason I have to stop myself from saying such retarded things as "That looks painful." whenever a lovely woman decides to show me her huge diamond ring.

People look at me and they wonder why I am the way I am. Let's have a round of applause for good old grandma. Before I could even discover who I was and what the world was she was already teaching me.

As I have grown older through out the years I did gain a new respect and love for my grandmother. She did also teach me that families stick together no matter what, and no matter how difficult things get we always could work through it together.

Learn more about this author, Jose Trujillo.
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