A Tribute To My Grandmother
Despite my travel woes over the weekend, I did find the memorial for my grandmother to be a positive experience despite the sadness involved.
Over the last few years, she had been so miserable and had been such a burden (often purposely) on my mother that it was hard to remember the person she was.
My grandmother was the child of a broken marriage. She had been kidnapped by her father at a young age and raised in a strict household. She blamed her mother for not “rescuing” her, though her working mother claimed that at the time she had no way to get her back.
My grandmother spoke awfully bad about my grandfather, but she had married him three times. Her soulmate though was my step-grandfather. Together, they did everything together and they certainly did everything. They ran an electronics repair shop, were accomplished sailors, and heavily involved in multiple organizations. She was an accomplished cook and seamstress who sewed multiple wedding dresses and later had a business making sails, cushions, and covers for boats. She got her GED late in life but she helped support her family as a secretary for years.
She once didn’t like the price quoted her to re-upholster her car so she stood around for a few hours watching them do it and then went home and did it herself.
She was a proud member of the NRA and once while trying to scare off a cat from the yard, shot a hole in their van’s transmission.
She and my step-grandfather thoroughly enjoyed life. They were definitely partiers. My friends in high school thought it was cool that my grandparents had a fridge just for their keg and that my step-grandfather dyed his hair green every St. Patrick’s day.
They had Bloody Mary’s every Sunday morning with their best friends’ even when they weren’t together, they’d call each other and shake the glass at the phone. My grandmother carried on this tradition with their friends until she went into the nursing home.
They once sailed to the Bahamas. The story goes that they heard that beer was insanely expensive in the Bahamas so they left with 48 cases of beer on their boat and a plan to turn around when they had only 24 cases left.
It was lovely to hear all of those wonderful memories from their friends this weekend. The laughter shared at their antics was exactly the way my grandparents would have wanted it. I’m glad to have these memories refreshed; they cloud the unhappiness of the last few years. Mostly, I’m glad that my grandparents are reunited and I imagine they’re reunited somewhere in a pub in Heaven enjoying themselves and raising some heck.
tags: dysfunctional family
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on February 14, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Tamara said:
What a life she lived! I’m glad you posted this, and glad the memorial was a source of comfort and humor.