2004-02-29

Hi, Grandma

Feb 22 was the anniversary of my grandmother's passing. I guess this year we had a lot of stuff going on, so it went by unnoticed. (Sorry, Grandma.)

That was 6 years ago, but here are some of the things I remember ....

I remember coming home from [elementary] school and having food on the table.

I remember watered down Campbell's cream of mushroom soup (because that's how my cousins had it at their place) - ew.

I remember Grandma teaching me how to cook (back in the day when it was okay to add MSG to anything and everything).

I remember her coughing in the middle of the night when I just got home from SFU, and I'd have to help her sit up in bed to drink water because she didn't have enough strength herself.

I remember how my room smelled of old people (c'mon now, y'all know what I mean!), plus the smell of fruit (sometimes gone bad) because she liked to keep it in the room.

I remember coming home and being horrified to find her on the [tile] floor of the foyer at the bottom of the stairs, cane knocked over, in a puddle of urine. I still don't know how long she'd been lying there, though she claimed that she didn't fall and was "just resting".

And mostly, I remember being in bed, on the phone, the week after she died. I was telling my friend about missing her, and all of a sudden, a wave of emotion passed through me, and I sat bolt upright, bawling and looking around, because I felt her there. Interestingly enough, she appeared in my brother's dream that night as well, so she was probably making the rounds before leaving the world.