Giving Thanks . . .for my Grandmother

Good Morning America has had a segment for a week urging viewers to give thanks to someone this Thanksgiving that you failed to thank properly in the past. Of course, I am thankful for my incredible grandchildren and my awesome children and my loving husband and my wonderful extended family but the rules say we must narrow it down to one person - one you may not have thanked properly before so I chose my grandmother.

My grandmother was born in 1877 and was of an era when women were basically homemakers for their husbands and the straight-laced disciplinarians of their children. My grandmother was those things but she was a visionary and was much ahead of her generation in many ways. She always thought just a little outside the box. She was very prim and proper and chastised me severely one time for having on just a "string between my legs." That description was of a pair of shorts I had on that were probably mid-thigh length but much too revealing for her tastes.

She was resourceful - having left with my grandfather and $25 in her pocket to move to Washington, D.C. , so my grandfather could attend Georgetown University Law School. She scrimped and saved and made that $25 last for an entire year.

Even though she was not highly educated, she designed and drew the plans for the home they built in Fort Payne which still stands today as a magnificent reminder of her many talents. The large brick home consisted of 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a library, a living room, dining room, breakfast room and kitchen - but the most fascinating room was the glassed-in porch which had a real fish pond in the floor!

My grandmother taught me how to cook many things, she taught me how to knit and had me knitting scarves to send to servicemen by the time I was 8 years old. Her house was between my house and school so every single day I stopped by her house on the way home from school knowing that a honey sandwich would be waiting for me when I got there.

Grandmother spent hundreds of hours with me - much of that time playing games. Her two favorites being gin rummy and Chinese checkers. She was not one of those grandmothers who let me win - she was much too competitive for that! She beat me almost every single time but we had so much fun that I always wanted to go back for more! She made me be the look-out for grandfather because before he came home from work, we had to put the games up because his philsophy was that if anyone had spare time on their hands, it should be used in reading the classics or the Bible and that card and game playing was a waste of the mind and a waste of time!

Grandmother worked very hard as most women did in those days because everything they did was a chore and very time-consuming but she never let me think that she did not have time for me! She made me feel special every day of her life.

She had a couple of vices but didn't try to hide them from me - just from the general public! She had a large closet (designed by her) - big enough for a chair and table. She hid in that closet for a while every day to play solitaire and dip snuff! Maybe we would all be better off today if we had a retreat such as that in which to hide and enjoy snuff!

Grandmother died when I was only 24 but 45 years later I still remember vividly her twinkling eyes, her laugh, her hugs and her unconditional love.

Thank you, Grandmother. I'll see you when I get to heaven.