Keeping Up With Grandma

Every week I try to visit my Grandma, my dad's mom. She lives alone now, though her kids check up on her regularly. With six children, she gets called multiple times every day and each of her offspring has "their day" to call her.

Last year, in August, I began going over to my grandma's house regularly. I came up with a project. She has hundreds of recipes from friends, her family, and from old magazines. I offered to type them all up in one cookbook. She would have written all of them down in one large cookbook herself, but she began to lose her sight about 15 years ago. I take this time to visit with her, help her out around the house, and type up her many delicious recepies.

My grandma was born in her parents' farm house in 1930. Her older brother went to war when she was a teenager and she had to take over helping her father with the farm. She tells me all kinds of stories of her youth, from living on the farm, to moving to the city into an apartment with a couple friends. She tells me about the guys she dated before she met grandpa, and then stories from when she was with grandpa. One thing I remember is that the town she lived in was so small, the surrounding communities were all interwoven into a large family web. She would have to go home after meeting a guy and ask her mom if she was related to this new guy. If her mother said she was, then that was pretty much the last she saw of him.

I love history as a subject in school, so I lap up any stories she gives me about going out dancing with grandpa on Friday and Saturday nights, about visiting her lovely relatives, and about her life on the farm. I enjoy hearing stories about my dad and his siblings when they were children, and stories of my cousins and myself as children. Most of our generation has grown to adulthood, now, so I find these stories humorous and precious.

Last Christmas, I presented most of the family with a copy of the "work in progress" cookbook. Everyone was extremely surprised and very grateful. I supplied the work and grandma supplied the money to publish my work into 1" binders. Most of the time, these days, I end up doing more visiting than typing. I lament my lack of work, but grandma tells me that its ok, because it is our project, and nobody else has to know if I typed or not this week.

I love visiting her because things slow down as soon as I pull into her driveway. I can enjoy a few hours just relaxing with her, talking as she crochets her dish scrubbies. We bake cookies sometimes, or I help her make dinner. Even as a little girl, I loved helping my grandma in the kitchen. She would tell me how much to measure, and I would feel important as the finished product came off of the stove or out of the oven.

I am hoping to really get into gear with this cookbook so I can publish another "edition" this Christmas. Everyone was so happy to recieve copies of grandma's favorite recepies, they started requesting others that they remember and love.

I have my work cut out for me, that's for sure. It is just so hard to focus when I am enjoying the company of such an amazing woman.