IWSG January 2025 She Led the Way

 

Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!

Happy New Year!

We're glad you're here! It's the First Wednesday of the month; when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys. Check out the monthly newsletter here.

The awesome co-hosts for this month’s posting of the IWSG are:     Rebecca Douglass, Beth Camp, Liza @ Middle Passages, and Natalie @ Literary Rambles!

 Today’s entirely optional question: Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?

When I was growing up, most kids had grandmothers; most of whom were widows who lived their remaining years with the families of the children they had raised. Most grandmothers cooked and cleaned, took care of laundry, and maybe tended a small garden out back while collecting a monthly stipend from the government for their husband’s military services.

My grandma was different in that her own two daughters had long been raised and gone as she worked full-time at a local grocery store where she stocked shelves and ran a cash register while raising two grandkids. By the time she was Lead Cashier, she had to soak her aching feet every evening. She didn’t have to have her hair done at the Beauty Parlor every Monday, but it was a treat she awarded herself after long work weeks and very busy Sundays when she took care of things a “good man would do if there was any to be had.”  Instead, she built the fence that encompassed our yard herself, serviced the evaporative cooler every year, painted the house, and changed the oil in her pride and joy; a light-blue Chevy Corvair.

Between arranging canned goods “just so” on store shelves all week and maybe rotating tires on the weekend, I imagined the little pink pillow with the silk pillowcase she slept on felt pretty good.

Grandma never complained and said it wouldn’t do any good. “Arm yourself with solutions to problems you want addressed by someone else.” she’d say.

No. Grandma didn’t cook or clean. But she ruled the roost and kept the bills paid while her own Mother (Mamo) took care of the household chores and kept us kids fed and on time for school each day. Mamo had coffee, toast, and the morning paper ready for grandma to read each day before she went to work. Grandma read the evening paper every day as well, while she soaked her feet at night. She seemed to know something about everything, and was interested in any subject I ever brought up. If she didn’t have an answer, we’d find out together. She taught herself to read sheet music (whereas Mamo played by ear) and sometimes filled in on Sunday evening piano concerts. I was in junior high before I discovered Grandma was a closet poet, too.

In retrospect, all we had to do was follow along as she led the way.

Any changes that ever occurred in our relationship over the years could only ever have been in the intensity of the love, respect, admiration, and gratitude that remains ever-vibrant in my heart today, long after her passing.

In closing, I’m sharing a quote my grandma, and I thought was pretty spot-on ;-)

 

Patience is the ability to count down before you blast off