Today is a very special day. It is my Grandma Eva's birthday. She was born on this day in 1906 and would have been 101 today if she were still with us. She passed in October of 1992 and took a piece of my heart with her. Today I honor her with this entry and always I think of her, miss her and strive to be like her.
Grandma Eva was the mother of all mothers. It seems in all the photos I have of her, she is holding babies and children. Mother to many and grandmother and great grandmother to many more. My father was her youngest child so I was lucky enough to be one of her youngest grandchildren. I spent so much of my early life with her that I don't even remember our house but I remember every bit about hers. She didn't work any more by the time I came around and so she spent her days playing with me and caring for me.
She loved to feed us, all of us. When we talk of her, which we often do when family gets together, everyone remembers that. My uncle always says how she had cold chicken in the fridge every single time he visited her. I remember her potato salad with pickles and olives and lots of eggs and the rhubarb that she grew in her garden. She would simmer it on the stove and serve it gloriously warm and topped with lots of sugar. I also remember that when she made peanut butter cookies she would always let me makes the fork marks on the top of each one. I loved that.
Here she is in her big back yard. She loved to garden and grow things. I loved to water the things she grew. But I would get the petals of the flowers wet so she would limit my watering privlidges to trees only. Once when I was about four, I got the brilliant idea that if I stuffed the hose down a hole I had found near the tree it would get a better drink. That hole happend to be an ant hill, where ants that bite lived and they covered my body to flee the flood I had brought upon them. I ran to the house screaming " ants in my pants, ants in my pants!" Grandma Eva hosed me off, then showered me off while I wailed in horror and she laughed. This is a story she told again and again. She laughed ever time she told it.
This is us together. She held me until I was truly much to big to be sitting in her lap. Her arms were amazingly soft and she smelled so sweet, of lotion and face powder. She read to me and played "dogs" with me. A game that meant we crawled on the floor through rooms and under tables, yes I did say we, and barked like dogs and drank water from a bowl. Is she not the best grandma ever? She was almost 70 when we were doing this.
At night, I slept with her in her big bed while my Grampa Kaspar slept in the guest room. We would talk every night until we fell asleep. She would tell me stories and teach me prayers. My Grandfather passed when I was four. Until I was older I thought that when we said the "Our Father" prayer, we were praying to him. He was "our father" and he was in heaven.
She said I would kick and move around too much and that I must have had boiling blood because I was always hot. Some mornings I would wake up and she would be sleeping on the other side of me. I would often lay so close to her that she would have to get up and go around to the other side to get some space.
She always slept on her side with her arms folded under her head or crossed over her chest. I watched her sleeping a million times. She was so beautiful and so wonderful.
When I was older, I spent summers with her and still slept next o her and still talked in the dark until we were sleeping. She was and early riser and I a very late one. I would always wake to the sound of her radio in the kitchen and the smells of coffee and toasting bread. The room would already be hot with the all to warm weather of eastern Washington. We would spend endless afternoons playing cards and listening to records while the air conditioner roared and kept us cool. I would dance in my chair and sing along to the songs as we played hand after hand of rummy.
We watched all sorts of shows on TV. Lots of television watching wasn't frowned upon in the 70's. Grandma Eva loved the Price is Right and Family Fued. Though it would make her mad when Richard Dawson would kiss all the women. She was sure that they didn't truly want to be kissed by him. She also loved Hee Haw and Lawrence Welk, which if I remember correctly, we watched back to back. Lawrence Welk was her people. My Grandma was a german woman who live in North Dakota for many years. Her and Lawrence had close to the same accent.
This is maybe my first Christmas, I am the one in red who seems to be petting the ceramic cat.
Grandma Eva was and is a bright, bright light in my life. She was the kindest person I have ever known. I can't remember her angry - ever. She loved everyone and scolded me when I didn't. She was a care taker of all. Everyone in her life loved her deeply. I think of her almost every day. I try to be the person she wanted me to be. I am so lucky to have known her.
Happy Birthday Grandma Eva. I love you madly.
Amelia
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