This week's story prompt asks about activities we remember doing with our maternal grandparents. I've written about this before in different ways but despite my mother's disdain for her father my memories have all be find of Gammie and even fonder of nana, my grandmother and grandfather on Mom's side.
Nan was killed by a drunk driver when I was about 10 years old. I remember the night my mother woke us up with her loud sobbing, a sound we never got use to as kids because it happened so infrequently. I know she was weeping because she just received word from the police about the crash but at the same time I can imagine she was hurting even worse because of the kind of woman Nana was.
About every 4 weeks or so my parents would take us all to Nana and Gammie's house. It must've been quite a commotion. It was hard for Nana to spend any individual time with activities for any of us but she never missed the opportunity to squeeze us each into her bosom with the tightest of squeezes. I would guess she spent more time with my sisters who would always help set the table, mix the flour and clean up the messes with her. Us boys would look for things we could disrupt mostly.
Gammie on the other hand loved all of us and spent more time with us boys as you might expect. I honestly can't think of activities we did together until after Nana died and Gammie moved in with us. He lived in an upstairs room where he took up the hobby of CB radio back in the early days when people were identified by call letters instead of handles. Ours was KMA 0525 and I loved learning how to say it in CB lingo.
I wish I was able to know Nana better. Fortunately, my memories were always of the happiest and most loving person whenever we visited. You could see her face light up when we all came through the door. Although I have to wonder if she knew what she was getting into behind her smile. She was so genuine and giving. It was the first major loss I ever experienced in my life.
Here's a photo with nana and Gammie the way I remember them most.
