In honor ofMaternal Grandmothers, here are some of my memories of my mom's mom or Mammaw.
Games - Mammaw loved to play games. Mom still plays with her now at the nursing home, but she's not as quick as she once was and I think mom lets her win most the time. But when I was a child, we played all sorts of games: Trouble, Sorry, Canasta, a lot of Canasta. When we played Trouble and twos popped up, we always said, Oops, a tootie.
Cornbread Dressing - Like Tamara, Cornbread dressing or dressin' was a staple during the holiday season. My dad has taken over the making of the dressin' now, but he always tells Mammaw, it's not as good as yours.
Comparing our nails - Mammaw and I both have crappy nails and when we could grow them out, we always compared them to see whose were the longest.
When I got older and Mammaw moved into the retirement home, mom and I would go pick her up and make trips to the mall or Wal-mart. We'd laugh and cut up. I remember her telling me one time about kissing her cousin, a girl cousin. And then she just went on with the story like it was no big deal and it probably wasn't, but to me, I was floored. There was an amazement that Mammaw had a life before I was born and she was a teenager at one time too.
I hate that now that I am old enough to appreciate these stories, that Mammaw's not really able to share them with me. Due to her muscle/brain atrophy, she mostly observes and doesn't say much anymore as it's often hard to understand her. She still has a sharp tongue though and if something is bothering her, she will get it out.
Even though these last few years have been a bit hard on my mom, taking care of Mammaw and visiting her in the nursing home, I'm glad they've had this time together and I know mom would agree. It is frustrating though that I couldn't be there as well more than I am.
2 comments:
This made me miss my grandmothers. But, it also reminded me of playing Chinese Checkers with one of them and the way she would cackle with glee when she knocked one of my marbles off the board :)
When we were in high school I remember you saying, "Oops, a tootie!" That's so funny. Guess I never realized it was something you got from your grandmother - or I just don't remember that. Funny how we don't want them to grow old... maybe it's ourselves we don't want to grow old as well.
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