Much has been said about grandmothers. Sweet greeting card rhymes talk about her being a best friend, while clever quips remind us she is glad the kids get to go home with mom. In books and movies, she is the "Beverly Hill Billies" Granny, with a tight bun and spectacles. She is the purple-wearing, polyestered, Bingo-crazed retirement community resident. But, as anyone with a grandmother knows, grandmothers are the wisest beings. They are often the loveliest trailblazers on the path of life. So much of what they are and did carries us even now.
I think often of my grandmothers, probably more often than they ever realized, since I wasn't the most consistent pen-pal. They were wonderful, noble women. I think frequently of my experiences with them. I think of the stories and words they wrote and shared before they passed away. And at times, like yesterday as I washed the dishes, a great longing rises up in my heart, and I miss my grandmothers palpably. I often wonder how near they still are to me, and if they are allowed to peek into my kitchen and my home, and watch my successes and failures as I try to become the kind of mother, the kind of woman, the kind of human being they were.
Grandma Marian (I just called her Grandma--but for the sake of this blog, I'll call my grandmothers by their first names) was an elegant lady, an English teacher who raised seven children, five boys and two girls, on a farm in the rugged deserts and jaw-dropping beauty of Southern Utah.
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| Marian |
Grandma Grace also taught school in a small Southern Idaho community. She taught several grades in a two-room schoolhouse. With her husband, she also raised seven children, five girls and two boys, on a century-old farm in the rocky hills and old pioneer trails of Southern Idaho.
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| Grace |
Both women were courageous, frugal, gifted, charitable, and wise. It is their wisdom that made me decide to blog about them, about what I learned from them, and what I wish I could ask them. I've heard it said that when someone dies, a library dies with them. That was how I felt when Grandma Marian died a few years ago. I felt it again when Grandma Grace passed away not long after. So this blog is an attempt to create, in a small measure, their libraries. I hope I am able to capture a library of both the wisdom of the mind as well as the wisdom of the heart.
