My grandma, Anna

I was sitting on a chair, elbows on the table with my face resting in my hands thinking... thinking... thinking....

If you looked at the table you'd see a butter dish, a serving dish with Trenary toast, a candy dish with lemon drops in it, a bottle of honey, the newspaper folded so that only the crossword puzzle was showing, two or three tea cups, and a paper with seven dash marks across the bottom of the paper with the typical hangman's gallow above it.  Sitting to my right was my Grandma.  I was nearly hung in this game and I was thinking....

My Grandma had offered me a clue... she said, "It's obvious."  So I kept thinking.... and she kept telling me, "it's obvious.  You should get it, it's so obvious."  I wasn't getting it until.... Oh!  Oh-the word was O-B-V-I-O-U-S.   My grandma just smiled and said, "I kept telling you it was obvious."  This was her subtle humor.

As a pre-teen, I was gangly, awkward, and self-consious in fact I was mercilessly teased about my looks.  Despite the fact I was lacking in the looks department, I wanted to be a model when I grew up, knowing full well that I would never be.  However, my grandma encouraged.  She opened her closet and asked for a modeling show.  My sisters and I would grab the stool and quickly climb to reach for her hat boxes, reach into the depts of her closets and come up with the most unusal and cute outfits.  We'd put them on and parade around the house.  The house was small, so our red carpet cat-walk was a simple circle that went from her bedroom, to the living room, to the dining, room, into the kitchen, and through the bathroom back into her bedroom.  My grandma would sit in her rocking chair in the dining room and watch as we passed by, and each time, she'd tell us how beautiful we were and what great outfits we had on.

Upstairs my grandma had a crawl space, she hid there once when we were playing hide-n-seek and scared my sister Diana.  Also upstairs, she had a poster that read "You know you're getting old when..."  the funniest saying to me was: "You know you're getting old when you go to wave and your under arm waves first."  Also, upstairs was a secret hiding place that our dad had built into the wall.  We had been told of this place for many years, but never knew where it was.  I don't recall the day we learned or even if it was our dad who showed us but... a secret was a secret.

There are so many stories one could tell about my Grandma Anna.  Her birthday is in December, she passed away while I was in graduate school 2002.  I miss her still today.  In fact, when I drink tea tonight it will be in her memory.