Remembering Grandma G.

My Grandma G. passed away two days ago. She was 95 and died of natural causes.

I loved my grandma, and I was close with her up until very recently, when her hearing loss made it impossible for me to talk with her on the phone. Even after that point, I know Grandma G. knew how much I loved her and how special she was to my brother and me.

Here are some things I remember and admired about my Grandma G. Most of these memories come from the week or so every summer that my brother and I spent alone with her as kids. I am so grateful for these summer visits and the chance they afforded us to get to know our Grandma G!

• She was a no-nonsense, highly independent, resourceful woman.
• She had an adorable giggle.
• She was very careful with her appearance and always took care to color-coordinate and accessorize. (S remembers her wearing "lots of pink" and layering her nightclothes just so: nightgown, bathrobe, slippers, etc.)
• She took my brother and me on many adventures around her town: trips to Ross Park, Cole Park, Otsiningo Park, and local playgrounds.
• She always served my brother and me meticulously peeled and cut fruit on our cereal, and wonderful little liverwurst sandwiches on DiLascia's rolls.
• She always managed to win at miniature golf, even into her 80s.
• She kicked butt at Boggle. Her vocabulary knew no bounds!
• She taught me and my brother to play Flinch---and we always played it together while drinking Sprite, Slice, or 7-Up out of clear plastic cups.
• She had an impressive collection of houseplants.
• She was the healthiest eater I've ever known. For instance, after cooking vegetables in water, she would refrigerate the cooking water and drink it later!
• She was environmentally conscious ahead of her time. Grandma rarely threw out "disposable" plastic containers, such as yogurt cups and margarine tubs. She washed and reused glass jars. As a kid I thought this was weird; now I admire her desire to recycle before it was fashionable. (She was thrifty, too.)
• She dyed and painted Easter eggs with my brother and me.
• She ran errands for and looked in on elder friends who needed help.
• She was a capable single mom for much of her life. This did not mean anything to me until I became a mom myself. Now I appreciate this fact.
• She loved floating on a raft in my parents' swimming pool in the summer. Skin-damaging UV rays be damned!
• She often smelled of witch hazel and flowery Avon lipstick.
• She kept knick-knacks around her apartment that fascinated my brother and me: a prism (which I now have), a block of rock salt, a glass jar of seashells.
• She used Jean Naté bath powder.
• She had a real sense of propriety: Beds were to be made the correct way, slips were to be worn under any and all dresses and skirts, lipstick was to be applied before leaving the house, etc. (Thanks to K for reminding me of this!)
• For many, many years she put together bags of tiny, individually wrapped Christmas gifts for my brother and me. These were so much fun to open! They were like stockings, but more mysterious, because you truly never knew what Grandma would find and wrap for you. (One could expect anything from earrings to cashews.)
• She was very well traveled. She brought me back beautiful nesting dolls from Russia.
• She kept a rack of old (and I mean OLD) LIFE magazines, which I loved to thumb through. I enjoyed looking at the old advertisements.
• She had very soft, delicate hands.
• Like me, she loved doing those JUMBLE puzzles. (She did them in the newspaper, I do them from a big book.)
• Every Thanksgiving that she spent at our (my parents') house, she would assist my dad in carving the turkey. The two of them, my dad super-tall and my grandma super-short, made an odd-looking pair, bent over the bird together.
• She called me "Honey."
• Not being able to see her great-granddaughter Maya very well, she spent some time caressing Maya's bare baby feet last Thanksgiving when we visited. Both Maya and Maya's cousin Jack seemed very content sitting with Grandma G during that visit (which I believe was a testament to my grandma's calm, gentle demeanor).