Remembering Grandma

Dear Mom,

Well, apparently the Garlic Tea worked. I don't seem to have a cold, although Don assures me I'm still quite aromatic. Just to be contrary I think I'll take one more dose. Perhaps not, tomorrow we'll be going to the Linux Computer Club meeting.

Today I worked at the Bluffton Store and for a change Nee Cee didn't go anywhere, she just did some things around the store and we got to visit more than usual. I was reminiscing about Grandma, she was pretty cool (for an old lady, I thought at the time). She'd visit for several months in the winter, having a daughter who lived in Miami was a wonderful thing. I have no idea how old she was when I was 10 or maybe 11, but she did something very cool, do you remember what it was? I was still attending Catholic school and was wearing those dorky uniforms, with white socks and saddle oxfords. Skinny as a stick, my little legs were covered with long dark hair, how I hated it! I thought I looked like a monkey, though no one ever teased me about it, the class was full of Cuban girls so I looked like everybody else. Still, I hated it.

One day Grandma waited until you went to the grocery store, took me into the bathroom and shaved my legs for me. Even though it was a Saturday, I put on my uniform and socks and looked at myself in the mirror. My legs were beautiful, smooth and shiny with lots of lotion. When you got home you almost had an aneurysm, little girls did *not* shave their legs back then. Grandma stood up to you and so did I; those hairy legs were history. That Christmas I got an electric shaver. I can't remember a present that thrilled me more than that Lady Sunbeam, before or since.

I wish I had had an opportunity to know her better before she got so ill with emphysema and didn't visit anymore. She had rather a reputation for being difficult, but we know where that comes from. A lot of women have raised children by themselves, but not many raised 8 children (who lived) and cared for a dying husband, too. I heard a good poem on "The Writer's Almanac" called "Donna Laura" by Maria Mazziotti Gillan. That's what got me started thinking about Grandma. In case you'd like to read it, it's here;

http://http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2007/12/31/#friday

Click on "listen" to hear it.

I love you,

Lisa