Thursday, May 3, 2018

Great Grandmothers

Any excuse I had I enjoyed stopping in at Grandpa Masts. Aunt Emma was always working at something interesting. Vernie would be helping her or playing with her toys. Grandma would be working at her desk most of the time making scrapbooks for each of her grandchildren or writing a letter for one of her many friends.

There was however one room in Grandpa's house that I tried to avoid as much as possible. The room itself was cheerful and pretty but on the one side there was a hospital bed and in it was Grandma's mother. Great Grandma had suffered from a stroke several years earlier and ever since that day Grandma was taking care of her.

She was in her nineties and I was scared of her. When ever I stepped into her room to go into Grandma's scrap booking room she would reach out with her bony arm and ask whose little girl I was. I would hurriedly answer and dart back out of the room.

On Sundays however when we would all walk to Grandpa's house I would have to go into her room with Mom while she talked to her. I used to breathe a sigh of relief once that I was allowed to go play with Vernie.
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Great Grandmother Swarey lived with one of her children. She was older than my other Great Grandma but she was still capable of taking care of herself to a certain extent.

Since she lived so far away I only ever got to meet her once. She was 103 at time. Several years later we got a letter from her son where she was living saying that she had put a pin between her lips while dressing herself as is so common among Amish women and had accidentally swallowed it.

They hadn't known about it until she complained about a pain and a trip to the doctor revealed the problem. They got the pin out, but at 106 it was too much for Great Grandmother.
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Somewhere between age 9 and now, I have quit being frightened when I meet someone who has lived a full life. And I hope by the time I'm that old someone will be willing to let me have a room in their house just like my Great Grandmothers had.

7 comments:

  1. My husband had a stroke a few years back. He was lucky that I got him to the hospital quickly and they treated him. He recovered fairly well, but I worry that it will happen again. He will be 80 years old tomorrow. And I pray that his last years on earth will be healthy ones.

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  2. I used to be frightened of very old/sick people as well when I was a child. Do you think there is anything your parents could have done to alleviate your fears?

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  3. Maryann, would you consider doing a post on the scrapbooks? I've read about them before in various children's books by Amish and Mennonite publishers. I get the impression that they are made by cutting out pictures from magazines and calendars - is that right? Is there a theme, or is it just things that you believe the recipient would like to see? What type of paper or book is used for the scrapbook? The only scrapbooking experience I have is with using actual photographs and documenting the events around them, but I would love to make the type your grandmother used to make.

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  4. An older person can be quite intimidating to little ones. They are just quite different from other people they have known.

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  5. I do agree that the very old can be pretty scary to small children, especially if they are ill or infirm. Elise suggested your mum might have been able to help, but if you were anything like the child I was, you never even mentioned it!

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  6. I had never thought that children might be scared of elderly people.

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  7. Stroke victims with impaired speech can be scary to children, esp. if the person is trying to talk to them and reaching out for them. I think if you lived with your great grandma and saw her daily, it would have been a different story and not so scary.
    There is a nursing home I once visited where a preschool was in the same building. Adult patient rooms could look out and watch the children play in the playground. And the kids were used to saying hi in the hallways to adults in the wheelchairs. A win win situation for both ages.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.