She has changed a bit since 1940.
Grandma has been the family torch-bearer for a long time, and you can tell that she is getting really tired. We all look up to her and respect her immensely. She is probably only 4'5" tall by now, but we all still look WAY up to her.
She has been through everything. When she and her sisters were really young, their mother Maggie died. My great-grandfather George was left with 5 girls and a son. This would have been sometime in the 1920's. The family was living in a lean-to in South Dakota when Maggie died. George decided to move back to Illinois to be near family, and got a job as a handy-man in an orphanage. The girls were raised in the orphanage for a time, but George was their dad, and a part of their lives. At some point George married Rose who worked in the orphanage. They got their own place, and normal family rituals were once again established. I have to hand it to George though. He did not run off...he did what had to be done.
My grandma married Lester sometime during the depression. They had 3 kids, and then Lester bailed on her. He was not made of the same stuff that George was. So grandma had to finish her story alone from there...she never re-married. She raised her kids by herself, and it would be easy to romanticize it, but the fact of the matter is she experienced a very severe depression that lasted for many years. I am told that my dad who was the oldest, basically took over the burden of raising the family. My grandma worked in a sweat shop, and of course back then, there were no anti-depressants. What we call depression today was called a nervous breakdown. The condition was one of shame, and not something you could just call in sick about. I have experienced depression all my life, and I can only imagaine how difficult it was for her to crawl to work each day and just get through it. But she did and she got through it, and that really speaks volumes to me about determination and backbone.
Life went on; her children grew up and had children of their own, and we have become an awesome family that I am very proud to be a member of. So much of my essence has been drawn from my grandma, and she is at the very center of my core.
Grandma has always been a very small woman...(that facet of her nature did not make its way into my core!) but this is one very small woman that you don't ever want to cross. Kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, great-great grandkids,,, we all know. To cross grandma is the get the "EYEBROW". Grandma is the only person I know who can literally throw her eyebrow at you. Sometimes it is like a bee-sting, sometimes more like a wasp. But if you really screw-up, it can be just exactly like a king cobra! Trust me.
A little bit earlier today I was doing my morning thing, and as usual my mind was blowing along at 90 miles an hour projecting and yakking and scaring the crap out of me... So many times, I feel like its not my world anymore. Trying to learn all of this new technology, and feeling lost and overwhelmed by the proverbial "fire hose" effect. Then I thought about my grandma. When she was my age, it was 1967. I was 10. On this day in 1967, the world looked nothing like it does now, or now it looks nothing like it did then...take your pick. Talk about a reality check. My grandma was probably a little overwhelmed then by how much things had changed. Because if you subtract 42 years from 1967, that would have been 1925 when my grandma was 10! Are you getting all of this? It puts me in my place as a grain of sand on the beach...part of the whole and totally unique just like everyone else.
The world has changed over the last 50 years because that is what it does. There is technology out the kazoo now, but today's techology is going to be antiquated in 42 years. And it will probably occur at a more accelerated rate because the more technology we have, the more we have to improve and evolve from. Should I make it to my grandma's age, I am going to be more like her. I am going to let others handle things. I am going to sit back and chill and just watch.
In the meantime,,,I am going to keep at it; I am going to learn as much as I can, offer as much as I can, and have faith that the trail that my grandma blazed is as good as it gets.
So long Sistah's!
From the desk of Joylynn...
Dedicated member of the Granny Pantie Subset
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