Along The Way

This is my granddaughter Sophia.  She's actually several months older now than in this picture, but I haven't gotten around to downloading more recent pics.  Sophia is 14 months old now and I wonder where the year has gone!  I feel young to be a grandmother.  My grandmothers always seemed old to me! I suppose they were about 10 years older than me when they became grandmothers.

Being a grandmother is an amazing thing.  I've noticed how often I think of my own grandmothers and how blessed I was to have two such loving and wonderful women who watched over me throughout my life.  I also feel a bit inadequate in that I'm not much like either of my grandmother's in the domestic department.  They could both sew, cook and housekeep like superstars of their generation. How did they manage to cook all the food at once and keep it hot?? It's still a mystery to me...While I admire those things about my grandmothers, I mostly look back and remember what tough women they were.

My paternal grandmother was a very short woman who was always smiling.  She was gentle and soft spoken.  She would get frustrated with my grandfather but would just laugh.  He died at the very young age of 54 and she never remarried.  He was the love of her life and she filled her life after his death with work, her children and us grandchildren.  She made the best cherry pies and always had ice cream for dessert, one little scoop after dinner.  Her kitchen was bright yellow and always smelled of toast and coffee.  I remember her hands were always soft.  After my grandfather died I laid on their bed and cried and cried and she let me listen to a music box she had over and over again.

My maternal grandmother was especially strong.  My grandfather moved her and my mom's family all over the country, from N. Dakota to Wisconsin to California and finally Arkansas.  She had 8 children, three of whom died before her.  She attended church almost every Sunday of her life in the Southern Baptist church which is sort of ironic considering she had no patience for sexism or racism.  She was very intelligent and could beat just about anyone in Scrabble and did the New York Times Crossword every day.  She had a dry wit and loved The Far Side.  She was a little more prickly than my other grandmother but we knew she loved us and she was probably exhausted by the time us grand kids came along!

I have much more to write about my grandmothers but I guess that's enough for now.