The first week of December always reminds me of my grandmother. Her birthday is December First. We shared December birthdays; and when hers came around, I knew mine wasn’t too far off. December birthdays aren’t the greatest as Christmas is right around the corner and usually celebrations get overlooked in the hectic rush of holiday shopping and decorating. Yet, I never minded. I can luckily state: I never got a crappy birthday gift. It actually made December an exciting time in my childhood. From Thanksgiving to New Years were always happy times. Yesterday got me really thinking of my grandmother and how I miss her. She was a second mother as she practically raised me alongside my hard-working single mother. I didn’t have two sets of grandparents like most kids. And I didn’t mind. It was just Grandmother. Grandfather had died in 1966; long before I was born. Yet, I often stared at his photo on our dining room cabinet and Grandmother’s bookcase. They would tell me stories of how he was a gruff ex-Navy man and was very old school strict and disciplined. I definitely wish I could have met him or talked with him. There were the stories of how he went to the neighbors house with a rifle, told the man if his dog chased my 7 year old mother to school again, he’d shoot it! Or the time, when he was displeased with how my mother, uncle and aunt washed the supper dishes, he made them wash every dish in the house, emptying out cupboards and the china cabinet. From that moment, they never did that chore half-assed again. I felt sorry for Grandmother as I think she missed him terribly. Yet, she was not some tea sipping granny either. She managed rental properties; she pumped her own gas; she went to the Sears to haggle over a washer; she went to church every Sunday in a 1966 green Rambler; she went to the newsstand every week to buy my comics; she watered and mowed her own lawn; and, she had an opinion when provoked. I remember when I bought my first suit in High School. It was one of those hip Miami Vice inspired suits that was an olive green and had the waist jacket that crossed in the front. She looked right at me and said, “the color looks like baby shit.” I think that was the first time I heard her cuss. I was shocked I didn’t know whether to be discouraged or laugh out loud. I respected her opinion that day but I still bought the suit. I even got my Senior Pictures done in it! I should have kept it just for that memory. Most of my memories of Grandmother are her clipping coupons on Sunday morning; me reading comics in the floor with her oscillating fan blowing on me; her taking me to TG&Y to buy a Star Wars figure and her shock that they cost $2.49 each. She would exclaim, “highway robbery!!” But she still bought them and took the time to ask if I was missing any ones I wanted. She was a great grandmother. She was my Grandmother. She died in 1999, just months before the birth of my daughter. I miss you. And I love you, Grandma!
