Day 102: Yesterday would’ve been my mother’s mother’s (my Grandma Vernie’s)119th birthday. She was born in 1899. I loved both of my grandmothers dearly, but one lived in Pasadena and kept close with phone calls and letter writing, while Grandma Vernie lived only 30 minutes away. I had grand adventures in her house, but that’s another towel topic.
She pretty much moved in with us the last year of her life. She was battling leukemia. We only had two bedrooms on the main level of our farmhouse: mine and my parents’, so I gave Grandma my room, and I slept in the living room that year. It was precious time spent. But I was in 9th grade, and sometimes I sulked when I couldn’t get into my room when I needed to. When that happened, my dear mother told me a story. A story about the grandmother who came to live with them when she was a little girl. After I learned the story, I didn’t sulk anymore.
It turns out, the Grandma who was living in my bedroom once took her mother into her house after she had a stroke. So you don’t have to go roaming around on the pedigree chart, that would’ve been my great grandmother. The stroke affected her speech, and all she could say was the word “thee”. She would repeat it, often becoming frustrated. “Thee thee thee thee thee thee . . ."
Her hand coordination was also affected by the stroke, and she could no longer write, so they purchased a set of alphabet stamps that she could grip and stamp onto paper, but it was so time consuming to stamp out the words, she usually gave up and went back to muttering “thee thee thee.”
When I’d heard that story, patience was no longer a problem for me. I saw my dear grandma , who had cared so tirelessly for her own mother, in a new light. I also saw my own mother in a new light. She was following her mother’s example.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that caretaker gene would move down a generation to my brother Tim as he cared tirelessly for both my parents, and also my brother, Mark, when he suffered the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis. Mark’s mind was trapped in a body that couldn’t form the words he wanted to say, or control his hands to write or type or stamp. He is an important topic for another of Mom’s towels.
It’s Word Week in my towel world, and today I’m grateful for words. All the words. I’m grateful I’m not limited to one, or none. Use your words. Use them up. Use them all. Express. Relay. Utter. Voice. Recite. Declare. Use them. Use them all. #MomsCompanyTowels #caregivers #Useyourwords #WordWeek #wordnerd
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