For My Grandmother

My cousin was E-mailing me the other day about my Grandma Savilla (an aunt to her), a “Renaissance woman,” as she described her, of 100% sturdy German stock (the mother of my stepfather).  She could do everything – bake, sew, cook, clean, cut & polish stones, do embroidery, crochet, make jewelry, sing, play guitar, play organ, paint, raise her own garden, can vegetables, make jams/jellies, make yogurt, fish, breed dogs & raise chickens.  I think she could hunt as well; my cousin also thought that she could do taxidermy.  At different points in her life, she was both a Boy Scouts Leader & a Girl Scouts Leader.  My grandma gave me my first dogs – an apricot poodle that I named Jennifer Lynn (who unwillingly rode around in the basket of my bike) & a shih tzu that I named Simba (whose nickname was Solly Cholly Chinaman Chan).   She imbued me with knowledge about birds, flowers, trees & so much more.  My love of books comes from her; I was reading Kahlil Gibran at a very young age!  My Grandma passed away in 1993.  Since then, I hadn’t really thought about all of my memories of her – the fresh mint that grew under the kitchen window, that big can of Crisco by the stove, how we’d pick berries in the back yard & make Indian pudding, how I used to hide frogs & toads in my pocket as a kid & put them in the kitchen sink, the scent of her fresh baked bread & cinnamon rolls wafting through the house, as well as how she let me design my own dresses before she sewed them when I was in junior high.  I miss picking apples from the apple tree in the back yard so that she could make pies for us.  I also miss watching old movies in black & white with her.  My cousin sent me a link showing the cemetery where she’s buried.  Even that brought back memories of us going to the cemetery together so that she could put flowers on my Uncle Bob’s grave while I picked daisies.  I just want to say “Thank you, Grandma!” because I know you can hear me.  In the dark hell of my childhood, you were the light that made me strive for more.  I wish that I could have taken you everywhere that you wanted to go before you passed away, but I always think of you whenever I travel.  Love you and miss you.