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Memoirs: Grandparents

Reflecting back on the memories of my grandmother, brings thoughts of simple living, kindness, joy, and loving. Unfortunately, I only knew one grandparent, which was my mother's mom. My other grandparents had passed away before I was born. I feel like this has helped me to be a good grandmother to my two grandchildren. Often when I am doing something with my granddaughter, I think back and wonder what would my grandmother do or say at this point.

Growing up, I often wished I had more than one grandparent. One day I was speaking to my one and only grandmother about my feelings, and her words spoken to me were, "You are fortunate to have at least one grandparent, so make each day spent with me, one that you will never regret." I was very young then and asked what she meant by that statement. Her response was, "Never waste time in your life, and always make the best of the times you have." Also she proceeded to say, "There will be times we don't agree about certain things, but we must not ever leave each other unhappy. We all have different opinions and reasons for certain thoughts, so please always keep that in mind. I will always love you and hopefully you will always love me. What you need to keep in mind are the good memories that we have."

With these statements she made to me, I have always kept that in mind. I grew up loving, respecting, and looking up to my grandmother. We enjoyed simple things together, such as quilting, playing games, visiting some of her friends, and sometimes just sitting on her front porch drinking her wonderful homemade lemonade, as she told me stories of her life.

She lived to be one hundred and four years old. Unfortunately, for the last four years of her life she was bed bound. As time progressed, I often wondered when I went to visit her in the nursing home if she knew who I was. One late afternoon, the nursing home personnel called me to tell me she was calling out my name. She had not spoken in years, however, that day my name was verbalized by her. I quickly went over to visit her and she never opened her eyes or never said a word, but at least I knew she had some kind of connection to me.

When I left her room I was happy, but yet so sad. All of a sudden I remembered when she spoke the words that I needed to reflect back on the good memories and times we have had together. As I was walking back to my vehicle, I was thinking of what kind of grandmother I would be years down the road and I made a promise to myself, that I would try to be a great grandmother, just as my grandmother was to me.

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