Found out tonight my grandmother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer today. Apparently she has a lump the size of a dinner plate in her body. It was hurting her back is why she went in. I’ll go down this weekend to see how she is doing. She’s 84 so this is fairly serious I imagine as the surgery will have to be major to remove something that large.
It’s not til things like this that you suddenly try and remember every little story, fact, lesson that a person has told you or taught you. My grandmother is huge into genealogy and loves to tell stories about my family’s heritage. Suddenly, I can’t remember a single one. If she passes on, I need to take something concrete, specific from her life and add it to mine, and pass it on to my children. Some fact, some story of her childhood, I don’t know.
I need to think of my best memories of everyone close to me, what they contributed to me most.
Grandma - Playing the card game Samba at the farm
Grandpa - Painting oil portraits with him
Mom - a tie, wandering around her yard learning about her garden and listening to her talk about her dad
Dad - Geeking out over anything sci-fi/roleplaying
Laura - my college years, especially coming out. Laura was so supportive
Tim - hiking around in Yellowstone
Ian - goofing off on the weekends, laughing, and feeling so completely comfortable and compatible
Nanny - staying over at her apartment and playing board games, hearing stories about my grandfather (who passed away before I was born but I always hear I’m so like him)
Helena, Jamie, Stephenie, and Tonya - Rainy days at Six Flags
Jennifer - caving
Victor, Naji, Jon, Marcia - roleplaying. Just feeling like I SO fit in
Chris - hanging out at the beach on Key West
James - half awake midnight chats hanging out in the living room about politics, life, and everything
Carey - climbing the trees of her front yard and making up one game after another
God, there’s just too many to think of, it all just becomes a jumble.
Take lots of photographs
May 18, 2004 @ 2:51 pmI’m so sorry to hear about your grandmother. My Great Aunt Edie left an oral history, of which I have a transcript, about her time in the WAC during WWII. Perhaps you could interview your grandma for posterity….
Why did it seem to rain every time we went to Six Flags? Good times, good times.
Sorry I missed you when I was in town–sounds like the Prom was a big success! I’m proud of your volunteerism!
Love,Steph
May 19, 2004 @ 2:29 pmOlder people are more resilient than they were, and while this is a problem now, and causing a lot of stress to everyone around her, I am hopeful that she will pull through, and will be spending many more family gatherings with you all.
I agree, take pictures, and capture moments through audio - does that iPod thingy record voice?
As for memories, I have a few that can’t be printed here *smile*, but I seem to recall that it was you who fell asleep first
May 19, 2004 @ 3:03 pmHugz,
James
Thank you all of you! You’re so sweet
I try to take as many photos as I can. When I have kids I’m going to make them take lots of photos and write down on the back when and where they were taken and who with, they’ll appreciate it some day!
My grandmother actually collected a huge amount of genealogical data on our family. While it’s not always the most structured data to go through, it is interesting to see it all and I can always hear her voice in anything she writes. I’ll post an update on her here soon.
May 20, 2004 @ 8:55 am