Grandma's Birthday

[Veronica]

She's 99 today. Can you imagine?!!!??? She's lived through the invention of cars (just a bit before her time) to the shuttle, telegraph to cell phones and the Internet, two world wars, Korea, VietNam.

She's been in a home for several years now and is a little out of it occasionally. But whenever I go to visit (she's in Maine) she knows who I am and if Thom is not with me, asks about him.

One of my siblings or my mom visits her just about every day to feed her lunch.

V.

[Trek420]

Happy Birthday G'ma!

[margo49]

Tell us a story about her, Veronica.

[Running Mommy]

WOW V! That is so cool!! I love sitting and talking to the older generations. There is so much we can learn from them. And I just love their take on the world these days.
Yes, please... Tell us a story about her!
And if you talk to her, telll her "ALL" your friends wish her a very happy birthday!

[Aggie_Ama]

Happy birthday Grandma!!

My own Mammaw is 89, I took her to the doctor a few weeks back; she's a fiesty one I tell ya! And the stories she can tell. She doesn't "get how we look at pictures on those computers".

[Veronica]

I don't have too many stories, mostly images in my head. My grandparents babysat me through much of my early childhood. They raised cattle and lived on a pretty large farm. I loved being over there. Except... for the cows. I was very much afraid of the cows. Cows are big when you are 4 or 5. My grandmother, who seems tiny to me now at right around 5 feet, would just push her way through those cows. And they would actually move.

As far as I know, she never had a driver's license, but she drove all the farm vehicles with ease. They had this one really ancient tractor with iron wheels. It was named Connie and that was her favorite one to drive. At haying time, she would drive the truck while my grandfather and brothers loaded in the bales. I just worked really hard at being in their way.

She has tiny little ankles. Genetics did not bequeath those on me. She had red hair, now it is a beautiful white. I get my skin coloring from her.

When I was in junior high I once asked her why she never wore pants. Her answer, "Why Vonni, I wear pants every day!" My grandfather snickered. She always wore an apron, unless she was going to an event.

To this day she won't call me Veronica and she always spelled my nickname wrong - with just one n.

We'll be in Maine next week. She'll be tickled to hear that you all wished her well.

V.

[Tuckervill]

Bless her heart!

My grandmother died last year on my birthday, a couple of months after she turned 100. Then in October, my husband's Aunt Suzie died just a few months after her 100th birthday.

I have a picture of Aunt Suzie taken last summer. The picture is of her from a distance, and she's holding a water hose, and she's watering her huge collards and tomatoes in her garden. She was still living at her home in Florida. Her newish house never had a driveway, because she never drove.

My grandmother had been in a home for about 5 years, and didn't recognize anyone but her children anymore. But she, too, gardened right up until she went in the nursing home. In fact, when she was 92, the weatherman came and did the weather right from her 1/2 acre garden, and we have pictures of him riding on the back of her tractor while she showed him around.

But my favorite story about my grandmother is the time she was taking her four children to church on the back of a mule one rainy spring. They lived down on the Arkansas river, and that mule got stuck to its elbows in the mud with the four kids on its back. My dad says my grandmother (we called her Maw), stood on a log and grabbed that mule and pulled it out--with four little kids aboard--all by herself. She could do anything she set her mind to, and she's the person I most hope to be like.

Karen