Today is my grandmother's birthday. I realized today when I got to work and looked at my calendar. My grandmother passed away in 2006 and she was the only grandparent I really ever knew. My maternal grandparents died before I was born, so I never had the pleasure of meeting them. My grandfather on my paternal side died when I still was a small child. I don't remember much about him. I have memories of him sitting in my grandmother's kitchen and I remember that he had a glass eye, which was a result of Pearl Harbor. In pictures him and my Daddy look very similar and word of mouth said that he knew how to do everything and enjoyed being right :) My mother told me he was a kind man. I remember when my grandmother passed and we were cleaning out her house, we found old love letters describing his affections and love for my grandmother, so I imagine he was a romantic.
To only have had one grandparent, I got a really good one. She lived walking distance from my childhood home and there was never a week that went by in my 20 years of living at home that I went without seeing her. I remember lots about my grandmother. She was the definition of a homebody. I can count on my hands how many times she visited our home. She usually only left the house for family gatherings, funerals, few and far between doctor's appointments, and to attend high school graduations. She never possessed a driver's license. After my grandfather passed away, my father took care of her until the day she went to the nursing home, checking on her at least twice a day if not more.
My grandmother had macular degeneration and was legally blind. When you came in her home you had to speak for her to recognize you. However, it rarely mattered who came to her door, she would invite a stranger into her home without a moment's hesitation and offer them a glass of sweet tea, probably the sweetest you have ever drank, and a piece of cake. She always had cake and you could tell her six ways from Sunday you weren't hungry, but she was going to give you a piece of cake. If you didn't at least try to eat a little bit of it, when she took your plate away you were always met with "Well...it must not have been any good..." :) She cooked the best baked beans, dressing at Thanksgiving, and the absolute best homemade french fries you have ever eaten. I can remember going in her home and her having hot french fries on a Piggly Wiggly brown paper grocery bag, freshly salted. My Daddy has tried hard to reduplicate them, but they never quite taste the same.
When you came to her home you could either find her in the garden or in the kitchen, standing at the sink. There was a tree right outside the window that had a bird feeder and she would watch the birds, at least what she could see of them. She was one of the kindest people I ever met and can't recall a time I ever heard her raise her voice. When you came in her home, she always was listening to the local hometown radio station and she always knew all the bad news, who was sick, ,who was dying, who was in the hospital, anything terrible that was happening. It should be said this irritated my Daddy to no end. I remember picking vegetables from our garden with her, shelling black eyed peas on her screen porch, and shucking and silking corn on her back porch (which I despised, you can't silk corn without getting it all over you). I remember how much she loved her family and me. After she passed while going through her things, I realized she must have kept everything I ever gave her. They were even yellow dandelions pressed in her Bible with notes attached "Mindy gave me this on...." I found a letter she wrote the day I was born, expressing her joy over a granddaughter. (I was the only girl) Even though it is unfortunate to only really know one of my grandparents, I was blessed to have a grandmother as sweet as her.
They read this at her funeral (they found it jotted down in her Bible) and I think it sums up my grandmother's simple, yet full, life.
" These things I have known - I have had a wonderful family and devoted friends, so I know what love is. I have planted seeds and prayed prayers that were answered, so I know what faith is. I have seen sunsets, rainbows, a harvest moon rising high above pine trees, so I know what beauty is. I have heard the cry of a newborn baby, so I know what miracles are. I have knelt at the altar of a small country church, so I know what peace and joy is .... and because I have known all these things I have known what wealth is. I have been rich in all the ways that matter."
Psalm 107:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
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