The last bit has been rough for me. I’ve lost one of the people who has influenced me the most growing up. And the thing of it is, I can’t be too sad. She had a wonderful, long life. And knowing that helps a little, now, and will help a lot, later. But for the time being I feel this great hole.
My grandmother was born in 1914. If she had lived only four more weeks she would have been 96-years-old. When she was 18 she ran away from home, temporarily changed her name and worked in an ice cream parlour. She later reconciled with her family and reverted back to her real name but she stay in Cincinnati.
Through a friend, Wild Alice was set up with my grandfather and they were married for 67 years. They had 7 children, 19 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren. Grandma started out as this very industrious lady, making clothing for her family. Asher sisters and, later, her children grew up and she had more time on her hands, she started to learn creative crafts: needlework, paper tole, knitting, ceramics, etc. When her hands failed her, she turned to technology, becoming a giant nerd. She was my oldest friend on Facebook. (Her account has not been turned off so she still is.)
What I’ve learned from my grandma cannot be summer up in a blog post. No matter the time I spent on it, I think it would end up trite and not honor the wonderful person she was. But these two themes are important:
- Stay busy and active.
Neither my grandma nor I ever believed the saying “idle hands are the devil’s tools” but I know she thought you should be busy at all times, using your time wisely and not just wasting life. She had a wonderfully long life and because she was always so busy she accomplished so much. - Never stop learning.
I feel as if in every study I hear or read, they point to one aspect of living a long life being challenging your mind. If that holds up to be true, then my grandma is exhibit A. It is this aspect I hope to most carry on. It helped keep my grandmother engaged and interested in life and other people engaged and interested in being with her. And it kept her mind sharp so that she could make her own end-of-life decisions, which so many older people do not get to do.
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