Yes, Grandmother, We Do

Let me start by saying that I'm really, really close to my family. I always have been, and they are an important group of people to me. All immediate family members live in the metro Atlanta area (including grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, etc) with the exception of my younger sister who went to school in Birmingham, AL and decided to stay there after college graduation and a cousin that is currently stationed in New Jersey with the Coast Guard. So, anyway, holidays are usually filled with making the 'rounds' to see everyone. Mother's Day being no exception. And today was the day to celebrate with the grandmothers. My dad's mom is of particular interest to me tonight for two reasons:

Number one is that my dad and aunt gave her a VCR/DVD combo player for Mother's Day. Now mind you, she's 80 years old and can barely work her telephone and answering machine. So, you can just imagine how much fun it was to try to teach her how to work the VCR/DVD player tonight. We literally went through and wrote down the steps to use it one by one starting with 'turn TV on. pick up remote and push the power button...' Watching this as an innocent granddaughter-bystander was like watching paint dry. It was slow and painful. I'll spare my readers of the insanely boring details, but suffice it to say that I doubt one movie will EVER be viewed using her "new fangled computer." But she'll be able to brag to all of her Bridge players that her son and daughter bought her a "movie machine."

The second reason is that she said something at the restaurant tonight that struck a chord with me. My uncle asked her how she was doing during dinner (as in, 'how is it? do you need anything?') and she replied, "Good. All I need is more time." Now, she meant that jokingly as if she wanted more time to eat because everything was so good. However when she said it, my first thought was, 'yes, grandmother, we do.' With her reaching the 80 year mark this past March, it occurs to me regularly that my time left with her is fleeting. She has been such an integral part of our "brady bunch-like yet slightly dysfunctional" family (hey isn't every family slightly dysfunctional?) that I can't even fathom what it would be like without her. She is a very strong Southern lady, and with that comes very decisive opinions that she's not afraid to share at any point and time, sometimes to the embarrassment of the family. But, she's a very respectable woman that has taught her children and grandchildren manners to be proud of, instilled a good work ethic to hang their hat on, and has shown us all an insurmountable amount of love. So, yes, grandmother, you're right, all I need is more time, because I'm not finished learning from you. I'm not finished being loved by you. And I'm not finished trying to express to you just how much you mean to me and our family. I don't know that I'll ever be able to do that, so if you could just stick around forever while I try, I promise I won't mind.