There was a story read to me as a child, about a grandmother who rides a motorcycle. I was never envious of the little boy in the story, because I knew that he was wrong for thinking his grandma was the coolest grandma in the world. His grandma couldn’t be the coolest grandma in the world because mine was. She has the mouth of a sailor and the dirtiest, funniest, sense of humour. Anyone who has spent any amount of time with her, can’t help but love her. My friend Jessi, upon hearing I was visiting my grandma this weekend, said, ” Doris! Tell her I say Hi and I love her.” My grandma, Doris, just has that type of magic. She is literally one of a kind.
Grandma has always been the most encouraging of me and my crafting, so I couldn’t go visit without a little homemade something. I had picked up this little paper mache elephant at Michael’s a while back, not knowing what he would become, but unable to resist his dollar price tag. When I went downstairs (to my dungeon craft area) to whip up a little something for Grandma, the little elephant practically honked at me. He would easily become the perfect addition to my Grandma’s elephant collection. She has the elephant figurines scattered around her apartment, always facing the door, as per the superstitions that this positioning allows them to protect the home. All of her elephants have trunks pointed upward as well, because if an elephant’s trunk is downward, then all it’s luck scatters away, but an upward trunk stores the luck for the recipient, in this case Grams.
Keeping in mind, that a white elephant is the luckiest of all, I decorated the elephant. I used leftover magazine cutouts from
this project. I chose shades of blue and turquoise and I modge podged them to the top and around the front. Then I painted the remainder of the elephant white. He was perfect. I knew she would love him and she did. I hope there are more similarly priced animals like this at Michael’s as I’d love to decorate other ones to use as tree ornaments.
My visit to grams, was atypical. Some of her magic is veiled by her illness, but I was happy to spend the weekend cleaning and cooking for her. I made her chicken soup, as soup is one of her all time favorite meals, along with chicken cutlets, spinach, and roasted root veggies. I couldn’t tell you how the soup or cutlets tasted, since I still don’t eat meat but as always, she loved everything I made for her, even if she didn’t eat nearly as much as usual. I froze some large portions for her and my grandpa to eat at later dates. I’m sure she appreciated the present & future home-cooked meals even more than the crafted elephant.
While there, I came across several crafted-by-me things; a relatively recent mermaid painting, a mermaid card, a necklace, and this beautiful hand painted pot. Judging by the crude depiction of her, my grandpa, flowers, and the sun, I made the pot circa 1998 or 1997, when I was eleven or twelve. And there it was, on her screened in porch, with a plant thriving in it, twelve or thirteen years later. I had to take a picture because it was just so sweet. On the top, it reads, “World’s Greatest Grandma,” which she was then, still is today, and always will be, even when all the paint has cracked off the pot and I’m a grandma myself.
I can sit, watch, and photograph my father teaching my sister how to make our traditional Christmas lasagna.
I can pick up my favorite of my grandmother’s antique ornaments and find the perfect spot to place it on the tree.
I can attempt bokeh photographs (and fail).
I can create self portraits in a random bulb on the tree and capture the beauty in the details of gifted tulips.
I can go through the motions of Christmas, but then suddenly out-of-the-blue it hits me; she’s gone and although we have her wonderful laugh captured in a movie, my life and especially the holiday season will never be the same without her.
I do not wish to keep dwelling on my sadness in this space. I want to get back to my regular perky self, and I will but in the interim, I hope you’ll excuse some periodic, somewhat pointless, most likely picture-filled posting.
She’s supposed to be floating on the top of the water…and she has red hair because I LOVE red hair.
