Today I received word that my grandmother is dying. So I have spent this day remembering so many things. She is an amazing woman. It somehow seems fitting that I describe her and share her life, to let you know her as I have known her.
She had 12 siblings and her mother was widowed in the 20's. They lived at the top of a mountain in the Arkansas Ozarks. Life was hard. They worked hard. It would be a kindness to call them farmers.
As entertainment they went to the front porch at the and "made music". For a time I lived on that mountain and I knew the house well. An annual gathering took place each year, I have many memories of that porch in the evening when they'd gather together. My memory tells me it was a very special thing I got to see.
She married, had two children. Family photos during that time show a hard life. This would have been during the Depression as well as the mid-western dust-bowl days. They left home, as so many others did at that time, to eventually land in California to seek their fortunes.
My Grandfather worked on the docks. My Grandmother raised her children and eventually went to work in the Sunshine Biscuit company factory (from which she eventually retired). She rode the bus to work. She and my Grandfather purchased a home in Alameda. I have a hazy vision of the sequence of events during this time however I do know that the second world war came and went.
My Grandfather was not called for service due to injuries from a long ago hunting accident. I imagine in that time that would have been a hard blow for any man to weather. He was a hard man. And a hard drinker. He was not a kind man. Much to his shame he was also illiterate.
My grandmother didn't finish high school. But make no mistake about it, she had a fine mind. In all my years of childhood I saw her read anything and everything, she was a true and loyal national geographic fan... I remember as a kid going thru them and seeing how very large the world really can be.
I tell these things primarily to acknowledge the true difficulty of the circumstances of the life that she lived, in which she shaped herself into the person I grew up to know.
I remember her home in Alameda well. I remember the drive there from Oakland... somehow if only I could hold my breath all the way thru the underwater tunnel I imagined would mark the time which I could make the swim on my own... I never did make it thru the tunnel =)
I remember so many many things about that time. It is etched in my memory along with the sun on the water. I think that with this bit of historical recollection complete I can begin to tell you about the woman I know as my Grandma.
