Friday, August 06, 2010

Friday Five: Grandmother Memories

RevGalBlogPals are taking a trip down memory lane today.  As a new grandmother, I would like to honor my own grandmothers with memories of treasured moments of grandmothers -- past, present, and future.

Flowers from my mother's garden
A treasured memory from childhood:
We called my dad's mother "Lollie."  She made my sister and me matching Easter dresses every year.  I remember feeling unfairly tortured with pins sticking me all over during the dreaded fitting.  I also remember my dad taking movies of every Easter egg hunt around, and in, Lollie's beautiful gardens.

A teenage memory:
My mom's mom was "Deedie" to everyone since childhood, as she was the oldest of 10 children who had difficulty pronouncing "Lydia."  When I was 13, I endured the tragedy (to me, then) of a family move from El Paso to Baton Rouge.  It was like moving to a strange country, and we moved in March, at the end of the school year.  I was beyond bereft.  My parents wisely suggested that I might want to make a summer trip (my first pilgrimage?) back to visit Deedie, and they said I could stay as long as I wanted to stay.  I spent six blessed weeks with her, learning how to sew, visiting homebound people from her church, canning plum jam from the fruit of her trees, getting hooked on my first soap opera, and staying up past 8:00 every night to watch the Tonight Show with her.  My parents finally had to call and insist I come home!

A young adult memory:
When I was 24, my mother became a grandma for the first time when my son was born.  I loved sharing my newborn children and my new mommy feelings with her.  She wanted to be called "Gran Gran" as her maternal grandmother had been to her.  My mother is a wonderful grandmother.  All of her grandchildren have made regular pilgrimages to the fantasy world fondly known as "Camp Gran Gran."


Her:  "You're a grandma!" Me: (stunned)
A memory from this summer:
I will never forget the moment when I got the phone call from my own daughter (also age 24) that her first born (also a son) had been born.  This news of Daniel seemed to come to me, not from ear to brain, but as if it had always been wandering deep inside somewhere and now had found a home in my heart.  Seeing him, holding him, changing him, watching his parents love him -- these are memories from this summer that are precious beyond words.

A memory I hope to have:
Shamelessly adopted from Deb's great answer:  Meeting and spoiling my great-grandchildren!

My mom and her grandkids (2009)
And the bonus song is: "In My Life" by the Beatles

There are places I'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all
But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more

1 comment:

Rev. Sharon said...

What a beautiful play... I'm typing with tears in my eyes, but they're happy tears. I love that song, and your memories are just so lovely! Your great-grandkids will surely be blessed. :) Thanks for commenting on my post!