You know I got in trouble for this photo, don't you? Thank God it was before the days of digital cameras when my petulance would have been immediately noticed. No, I got an eye roll and a huge sigh when the photograph was developed.
That is my Grandma G. on the left, then me, my Mom, and my sister. I'm not really sure why we appear to be standing on the side of a freeway, all I can tell you is that we were in Canada, at the 1988 EXPO, and something had made me very, very mad.
I think this expression has been on my face for most, if not all, of the past weekend. Zac and I finally made it back to Houston after an exhausting four days. He didn't understand why he was castigated to a corner of the hotel room with an uncomfortable crib. I didn't understand why he needed to cry for 45 minutes everytime I tried to put him down for a nap or bedtime. He decided to try out his new standing skills by standing up in his crib, rattling the metal bars, and screaming as loud as his one year-old body could manage. It was an impressive sight to say the least.
The funeral itself was a small service at my Grandma's church, about an hour east of Pittsburgh. Not much has changed in that town since my Dad grew up there. My uncle has never lived more than five miles away from the hospital where he was born. My aunt made the move to Pittsburgh, but traveled frequently back to the town to see my Grandma with her husband and two children. Somehow the young, female pastor managed to say, "in the green Lutheran Book of Worship" at least ten times during the service, as if we needed to be reminded of the color or name of the book we were holding and following along in.
The most touching part of the week came when we watched an amazing video of my Grandma performing a flapper dance routine for a Mom-Daughter tea at her Lutheran Church. It was one of those videos where I expected her to speak directly into the camera at the beginning and announce, "If you are watching this, then I have passed from this Earth onto a better place because there is no way in Hell that you should be watching this if I'm still alive". Oh, it was so good to see her in her youth (at 70!), kicking, dancing, lip-synching, and playing to the crowd.
That is what I will remember about her. Well, that and the really good chocolate-covered peanut butter balls that she always sent us at Christmas.
2 comments:
I don't know whether you got an a$$ kicking for this photo originally, but I have to say that if you find one more unflattering family photo with me in it, I might just have to give you one now! :) xxx
Just go ahead and try, sis! I've got access to a lot more photos than you do!!
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