EVENING
COPY FROM MY BELOVED COUSIN
this is a story about my grandma and our..!!
“Don’t run around or you’ll fall flat to your face, you brats!” yelled my grandmother at the top of her lungs at a bunch of small brats – my cousins and I. Overdosed sugar probably. That was the life of my childhood days with my grandmother.
It was a mixed feeling of love and hate towards her that we felt at that time. Whenever we played, she would be on the watch in waiting for the next mischief we were up to. Whenever we argue among ourselves, she would stick her nose in our arguments and make the loudest noise putting all of us to silent. And whenever she asked us for a favor while we were having our own activities, we would ignore her leaving her with no choice but to sit with us, insisting that she plays along with us even though she knows nothing about our game. This in turn took away our excitement leaving us to do the favors she wanted of us earlier. That was my weird grandmother, illiterate but full of creativity when it comes to handling mischievous rats like us.
That was one of her traits besides being a caring and responsible baby-sitter when our parents were out at work. She would prepare breakfast for us, usually plain-white porridge with ‘kicap’ and salted eggs as side dishes while we were seated at the edge of the dining table. When we joked, she would threaten to tell our grandfather, a friendly but strict man – a man of his words. After our meal, she would bathe each one of us separately, put us in our respective uniforms, groomed us and finally send us off to the bus. This was her daily routine as a seventy-year-old plus woman for several years until all of us entered high school.
She would also protect us from our ‘evil’ granduncle, a brother to our beloved granddad. Unknown of the causes until now, he would always pick on us and scolds us for God-knows why reasons - especially MY COUSIN! Fortunately, he is on a walking stick so we could run further in a second than he could make step in a minute. But he had his chance whenever we were near him. He would raise his walking stick up high behind us and swing it on one of us – again usually MY COUSIN! On hearing the incident, my grandmother would always rush to him with never-ending yells and scorn, which increases when my grandfather joined forces with her after we ran to him for complaint. Well, we couldn’t say we did not enjoy the orchestraic moment.
Before we sleep, being sweet, she would come to us, tuck us under the blanket and sing the same song over and over again like a recorded tape! But most of the time she would tell us stories, fact or fiction, but usually facts, or should I say, gossips about our uncles’ and aunts’ childhood lives. At times, she would also dig out old photographs and show them to us one by one elaborating on what was happening in that particular point of time.
Reaching her eighties, she became ill all of a sudden and was showing negative improvement in her health causing her to be a little bedridden. Slowly, she recuperated slightly but never completely. That put my uncles and aunts in a state of worry. They would visit her more often at home, standing at her bedside, making jokes to make her laugh. Jokes were the ones that kept her mood lifted, hence the positive health response that followed.
It was all fine until a serious stroke hit her leaving her half-paralyzed, impairing her speech and the movement of her right side of her body permanently. Families and relatives visited her without fail everyday in the hospital and at home. She is a strong woman I should say. She survived the stroke that what seemed a little impossible to the doctor. We kept the jokes going. Finally, she managed to gain the strength to smile and chuckled at our jokes, even with the impairment taking hold of her right side. That moved me in tears. She showed courage, bravery and great determination despite being tremendously ill. I wouldn’t know if I could endure the pain and agony if I were her.
Anyway, tables have turned side now. It’s me giving back what she had given when I was young, what I needed most after the demise of my mother – love, care and attention. I spent time with her after work in the hospital everyday when I was working earlier this year. The person that had shown unfailing love when we were young will now reap what she has sown into our lives – unconditional love. Time will not be long before we could miss her. A person who brought up twelve children and ten grandchildren will be a person that will leave warm memories into each and every heart of the family. A great wife, a loving mother and a caring grandmother is what we’re proud to have!
Love you grandma!
Continue to be strong! =’)
It was a mixed feeling of love and hate towards her that we felt at that time. Whenever we played, she would be on the watch in waiting for the next mischief we were up to. Whenever we argue among ourselves, she would stick her nose in our arguments and make the loudest noise putting all of us to silent. And whenever she asked us for a favor while we were having our own activities, we would ignore her leaving her with no choice but to sit with us, insisting that she plays along with us even though she knows nothing about our game. This in turn took away our excitement leaving us to do the favors she wanted of us earlier. That was my weird grandmother, illiterate but full of creativity when it comes to handling mischievous rats like us.
That was one of her traits besides being a caring and responsible baby-sitter when our parents were out at work. She would prepare breakfast for us, usually plain-white porridge with ‘kicap’ and salted eggs as side dishes while we were seated at the edge of the dining table. When we joked, she would threaten to tell our grandfather, a friendly but strict man – a man of his words. After our meal, she would bathe each one of us separately, put us in our respective uniforms, groomed us and finally send us off to the bus. This was her daily routine as a seventy-year-old plus woman for several years until all of us entered high school.
She would also protect us from our ‘evil’ granduncle, a brother to our beloved granddad. Unknown of the causes until now, he would always pick on us and scolds us for God-knows why reasons - especially MY COUSIN! Fortunately, he is on a walking stick so we could run further in a second than he could make step in a minute. But he had his chance whenever we were near him. He would raise his walking stick up high behind us and swing it on one of us – again usually MY COUSIN! On hearing the incident, my grandmother would always rush to him with never-ending yells and scorn, which increases when my grandfather joined forces with her after we ran to him for complaint. Well, we couldn’t say we did not enjoy the orchestraic moment.
Before we sleep, being sweet, she would come to us, tuck us under the blanket and sing the same song over and over again like a recorded tape! But most of the time she would tell us stories, fact or fiction, but usually facts, or should I say, gossips about our uncles’ and aunts’ childhood lives. At times, she would also dig out old photographs and show them to us one by one elaborating on what was happening in that particular point of time.
Reaching her eighties, she became ill all of a sudden and was showing negative improvement in her health causing her to be a little bedridden. Slowly, she recuperated slightly but never completely. That put my uncles and aunts in a state of worry. They would visit her more often at home, standing at her bedside, making jokes to make her laugh. Jokes were the ones that kept her mood lifted, hence the positive health response that followed.
It was all fine until a serious stroke hit her leaving her half-paralyzed, impairing her speech and the movement of her right side of her body permanently. Families and relatives visited her without fail everyday in the hospital and at home. She is a strong woman I should say. She survived the stroke that what seemed a little impossible to the doctor. We kept the jokes going. Finally, she managed to gain the strength to smile and chuckled at our jokes, even with the impairment taking hold of her right side. That moved me in tears. She showed courage, bravery and great determination despite being tremendously ill. I wouldn’t know if I could endure the pain and agony if I were her.
Anyway, tables have turned side now. It’s me giving back what she had given when I was young, what I needed most after the demise of my mother – love, care and attention. I spent time with her after work in the hospital everyday when I was working earlier this year. The person that had shown unfailing love when we were young will now reap what she has sown into our lives – unconditional love. Time will not be long before we could miss her. A person who brought up twelve children and ten grandchildren will be a person that will leave warm memories into each and every heart of the family. A great wife, a loving mother and a caring grandmother is what we’re proud to have!
Love you grandma!
Continue to be strong! =’)
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