5.21.2006

Viva La Granny!



Yesterday, we celebrated my grandmother's 80th birthday with a big partee at Mamoo's house. It seems like yesterday that I was twelve, and we four kids--my sister, my two uncles (who were about our age), and I--were teaching my grandmother to ride a bike, her goal at turning 50. Soon after that, she would overcome her lifelong fear of water and learn to swim; at 65, she took up rollerblading, and we began to get concerned. By then, she also had a boyfriend 12 years her junior, who begged her to marry him for almost a decade--no dice. She was done with all that.

She insisted on living alone until just a few years ago, until her own dependent, her beloved cat Cindy, died a ripe old age. Then she conceded to move, splitting her time between my mother's house and my mom's brother and his wife's.

She's beautiful and stubborn, with a wicked sense of humor. I've got 37 years to get there.

4 comments:

minus five said...

how is it that we both have an 80 year-old granny? yours is pretty much as cool as mine is too.

now i see what you were meaning about her not acting her age. my granny doesn't either.

this must mean we have something to look forward to.

Mary Campbell said...

I trump you both....if my grandmother were alive today...she'd be 105. So there.

Acting one's age is sooo overrated. I hope to be wise beyond my years until I get to the point where I am supposed to be "settled" into "something"...then I hope to be defying all standards of "acceptable" and "normative" behavior.

Regardless, I think there is MUCH to look forward to. Getting older means caring less and being more....and that is a fine thing.

Anonymous said...

oh yeah, i forgot to say this is a wonderful tribute.

Anonymous said...

well, i've really messed this up. my first comment didn't print. what i said was, "and i only have 18 years to go."
get ready , tania.

but then, do you remember me saying "if i die?" you thought that was prettty funny.

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