eirian84's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History So, I'm driving around after work (it was about a quarter 'til 7), & I see this elderly lady walking down the sidewalk. She's wearing a (primarily) white shirt, a nice light green skirt that fell below her knees & is the type of skirt I consider the epitome of elderly-lady-wear. I figured at first that she was out taking her daily walk, but then wondered why she wasn't wearing pants. Then I thought she might be smoking (I couldn't see the hand further away from me, & still don't know), & wondered why she'd be walking if she were just out for a smoke. So then I just started speculating. Maybe she was out walking to somewhere. Maybe she was visiting a friend, and having a smoke on her way. But why wasn't she driving? Well, she's old enough (I imagined) that she might have never learned. Either she'd lived in town so long that she'd been able to walk everywhere she needed to, or her husband had always driven, & (if he wasn't still alive) now she had children who could take her if she needed it. This is how my mind works; yes, I do have a point (sorta). So, I got to thinking about it. I know my Grandma could drive, and I got to thinking about her. It's inevitable, working with elderly women almost every night, that I'm gonna start wondering about her. She died when I was 7, & I didn't really know her that well (old people scared me when I was little, I kid you not). But my mom says that I would have liked her, & we had the same kind of sense of humor. I got to wondering, what must it have been like for her? A middle-aged woman in the sixties, a widow, with 3 teenaged children to take care of and support. My mom was 13 when her dad died. He had diabetes, & died of complications from it (I had to ask her what he'd died of, though I'd wondered if that wasn't it, since she's never mentioned any other health problems. I didn't want to ask any further, because I don't know how upset she'd be by it). I knew he'd gone to the hospital (in Omaha, I think) for dialysis when my mom was little, because she'd told me about it. After he died, Grandma was approached by some neighbors (I think they were neighbors, at least in farm-terms), who had a child about my mom's age, and offered to take my mom & help raise her. I think about it and it just shocks me. These people, even if they're friends, coming up to you and saying if she wants them to, they can raise her daughter so she doesn't have such a burden. How did she react? What were her thoughts? My mom didn't know this had happened until later, after she was grown, & that's the only way I know about it. I wish my Grandma had lived longer, so I could talk to her. Old people have some of the best stories, and they seem even better when you're related to them. I'm thankful (now) for the chance I was given to get to know my Aunt Mary better, to talk to her and hear some of her great stories. It's been over a year since she died (May 1st, 2005), and this is the first time I've cried because she's gone. I'm running out of old people to talk to. I've already lost all the close ones. The ones I'm most interested in. 7:04 a.m. - 2006-07-24 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||
|
||||||