A testament to Mom, Grandma, Gma, Aunt Jane, the Mothra, Jane, Janey, and that woman who keeps yelling at me to get off my damn Jetski…

In the wake of the news that Grandma (I’m just going to stick to the one name I usually call her since otherwise this will be really long…) has passed on, I feel the need to take pen to paper or, rather, fingers to keyboard. I’m currently listening to a Nellie Lutcher playlist on youtube (thanks Isa), which just reminds me of how much time has gone by throughout Grandma’s very long and prosperous life. She, of course, is passing on her legacy to all of us along with her talent, sense of humor, and dare I say… ear for music? I’m constantly amazed (though not surprised) by just how much fun we have together, and we have her to thank for it. I don’t know any other families who can gather around the piano/insert-musical-instrument-here and just…jam (? What is the grandparents-time-appropriate word for “jamming”)… in any case, we have been overwhelmingly blessed. Surely any friends who have seen half the fun we have together have walked away with a smile in recess of laughing on their faces…

I was going to try and not be so rambling, but the best laid plans of a Selby writer…

My personal last memory of Grandma is lying on the bed with her so we could look at each other’s faces while talking without her having to get up. She told me a story, ever the same intonation and vivacity in the story, just lying down. It was a good progression, I guess, of getting prepared for the absence of someone who’s been such a huge presence in our lives. The one picture I think of when I think of pictures of us (Gma and myself) together is coincidentally also of us just hanging out, lying in bed. I believe I’m wearing my “baby whale” Oshkosh overalls with a tousled head of curls laid up on Grandma and her up on her shoulder looking down at me.

Of course, I regret not spending more time with her whenever I came home, and Lord knows she would have preferred me to not be so far away, but I can also take comfort in the fact that she was always supportive (sometimes in contradiction to things she said ;) and proud of anything we did worth being proud of, and forgiving. She constantly showed herself to be either the guiding light to inspire/get us moving, or the steadfast one on whom we could always rely. Whether by her spirit of never giving up, her unbelievable acceptance of all people (whatever old-school rhetoric), and her unbelievable… coolness, she was consistently “there” in full glory, and damned be he or she that try to get in her way (because, seriously, there’s a list of the failures who have tried…).

I can’t help but be jealous at a time like this of our parents, who knew her longer than we did, and then of Papa who knew her the longest out of all of use (lucky duck) and, thanks be, took that spicy lady as his bride. That being said, we’ve definitely all had some good times together. Praise be for summer vacations, stories, crabcakes, and a Dixie cup of orange juice with a cookie… but only after you have brushed your teeth and are in your bed! If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get to see the false teeth and her scary display of gums, followed by the inevitable laughter from her not being to hold it in any longer.

Ok, my youtube playlist just skipped from classy old blues to a video of twin baby boys laughing at each other. I think Grandma would see the humor in that (and laugh with them)… switching to Glenn Miller now, nonetheless.

In conclusion from this run-on of things probably most of you already know, I am sad not to be with the rest of the fam at this time, but I know Grandma wouldn’t hold it against me. I will hold her in my mind and heart, as will I the rest of you who will be on Sullivan’s Island. Know that I miss you and love you and am with you in spirit.

By the way, I don’t remember what story she told me, but we enjoyed it together, and that was the important part since if you can’t remember, must not have been…

*Peddie, I hope that you do not mind, but since I am not as talented with words as you are I am adding one of my favorite pictures of my dear grandma.