Thursday, September 22, 2005

Ninety-One and Still Lovely

I was able to visit my grandmother today, something I don't get to do as often as I'd like. She just lives here in town, but it seems rare that I have an hour or two to set aside with no demands, to stop in and talk. I was struck today by how beautiful she still is--she has snow-white hair that she keeps freshly set and blue eyes with a twinkle. She had on a pale green blouse and soft white cardigan and looked like the picture of old-ladyhood.

Her room in the retirement complex is always pristinely neat and clean and her African violet is watered. She does a lot of sewing--mostly making sock monkeys which sell in a booth in an antique mall.

Before she moved out of her house and into the apartment where she is now, she *always* cooked an enormous lunch. Meatloaf. Chicken and noodles. Porcupine meatballs, turkey, lima beans, green beans, cabbage, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, cooked greens, cornbread--not all of them every day, but many on any given day! And always the offer of cottage cheese, if your plate didn't look full enough. Many days when I just had two little boys, I would time my errands so that we could "drop in" right at lunch time, and we were always rewarded. Often I would catch one or two of my brothers already eating at her table.

I have already told the Composer that I won't be covering my gray hair as it arrives. I want to be just like Nanny.

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