Saturday, March 18, 2006

Grandma the Champ

My grandmother turned eighty today. Eighty! She has ten children, five boys - five girls. She has like twenty four grand kids. She's a beautiful lady in every way. She always has to share her time between everyone at functions like these, yet she's able to make everyone feel as if she'd been waiting for only them to show up.

Time with your family is important. It's hard or even impossible for a lot of folks, and that's too bad. Grandma's don't need much more than time with their loved ones. Ask an eighty year old woman what she wants for her birthday.

Imagine being eighty. You slow down. Your life slows down. You wake up earlier and go to bed sooner. You probably think about death, a lot. Your kids and grand kids move too fast. Their lives move too fast. It's difficult for them to slow it down enough to hang with you, especially the grand kids. You don't understand the world as well as you used to and it scares you. You nap regularly.You probably pet your dog more often, and find reasons to make phone calls/dinners.

I used to live next to an elderly woman whose husband had died a few years back. When she saw me anywhere near the porch she would talk my ear off. She would call me sometimes and tell me to come over and get the dinners she would make me . My girlfriend at the time would tease me about having an affair with an older woman. She was supremely lonely and often I appeased her with lengthy idle conversations, but sometimes I didn't have time to talk and I could tell how disappointed it made her. Of course I would feel bad and rationalize it out by thinking that she wasn't even a family member. But the real point is that getting old and dying happens. Sometimes alone like my neighbor.

My grandmother is a rose on the bush. Still strong, elegant, yet delicate. She has tremendous support from her family and blesses God everyday for it. Simply put, she's the shit.

Happy Birthday! Margaret Burke March 18, 1926

Mojokong - one of many