Christmas 1977...as you can see, we are a family that liked lots of pets!
I originally posted this in July, at that time my mom and i were discussing my grandmothers situation...you see, my mom had recently had to put her mom in the nursing home because my grandma decided she was no longer going to take her meds...that's right, grandma's off her meds...which you think would make a great situation comedy..."TONITE, on...GRANDMA'S OFF HER MEDS"...Grandma Reba takes on Hells Angels at Walgreens while waiting for her XANAX with hilarious results!"
O.k...maybe not...unless you knew my grandma and realized that she REALLY COULD take on Hells Angel if she wanted too...(as long as it didn't interfere with her bridge night with the girls)...my grandma chose instead, to take on everyone else...my grandma is a fighter...that is why she has lived so long (98! and still in her own home)...she was the eighth child of nine kids and has outlived them all...grew up in a very poor Quaker household with NO CAR...rode a horse to everything but that was, of course, when they were lucky to have a horse...they had very little food, heck, the depression was nothing for my grandma...she didn't even notice when it hit...but she survived to raise my mom and uncle and send them to college, and then SHE decided to go to college in 1962 when she was well into her 50's...something that was so unusual at the time that she was a front page article in the paper..."old lady goes to college" or something like that...she went on to become a nurse and then got hired by all her friends kids to take care of their parents when they couldn't take care of themselves, she was still doing private nursing INTO HER 80's when she was forced into retirement...because all her friends had passed away...
And, of my gosh, still driving well into her 80's...in fact, i have actually gone storm chasing an F 3 tornado and still was never as scared as when i went for a car ride with my grandma in her 1967 "boat"...one of those big giant gas guzzlers that was only driven by a little old lady to church...except that she drove over lawns and sidewalks to get there...(completely oblivious to her screaming neighbors as she HATED wearing her hearing aids)...there she was balancing her 86 year old hiney on TWO Mason City Iowa phone books (hey, it's a small town-you need two) so she could look over the steering wheel and see who she was flipping off..."stupid kids" she would mutter to 60 year old guys she cut off until my dad finally had to sneak into her garage and disable her car so she would stop driving...but i can think of no one tougher then my grandma...i will never have to fear growing old or stale thanks to my grandma...she started her life over and because of her example...when i turn 50 i'm going to run off and become a roadie for Stevie Nicks, or Heart or even Cher...we sisters are taking it on the road and doing it for ourselves!!!
But no my grandma is tired and wants to go home, on her terms of course...
God bless you Grandma Reba, i'll miss you,
Cindy
ps...before you go, could you please jot down your cinnamon-apple recipe...if you have time?
November 20, 2006...As it turns out, my grandma didn't have time...my grandma passed away suddenly Thursday, November 16, 2006 just a couple of months after her son died...my grandma survived just about everything but the death of a child...that's when she really gave up...but she kept her mind to the end, and i will cherish her memory to the end of mine.
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