Every other Saturday I get to help out my Grandma Riggs.
This past Saturday she had planned to clean out this room in her house where she stores... well, her RANDOM things. (You know.. some of us have junk drawers, cause we tell ourselves we will put them away "later"! Well, she has a room, actually rooms.) So, when I got there I heard her say that it would probably take about 2 hours. Our conversation at that time:
Me: "So what do you really want to accomplish from this room? "
G-ma: "Well, I really want to clean it out."
Me: "O.K.! Sounds like a good plan. NOW, don't be affended at things I might say you should throw away. If you are asking me to help I am going to do my best to help you really get organized!"
G-ma (little Chuckle): "Ahh OH! Remember that you have to ask me before you throw anything away! I guess I am probably hiring the right person for the job."
So all we did for that 2 hours was clean off her 2 counter tops in that room.. & it looked a whole lot better. It was so much fun, & it went by so fast. I have got to share a couple of my favorite things about Saturday!:
1) My G-ma is quite the popular lady! (because she is so sweet) If you ever hear her laugh, you just start laughing. It is contagious.) So many people send her cards for many holidays. As I found out back in November... She keeps them! Quite the collection! She loves keeping cards & nice letters. I am not sure she has ever taken all of them back out to look at, but I know all of them mean a lot to her so she does not want to throw them away.
2) She loves sweets. (I'll blame this one on her.) She lived with my mom a couple years ago. At the time, we found out that she kind of sneaks certain foods. When she would take her blood pressure, it would speak for itself! We would laugh. If I were her age, I would have the same attitude. WHO CARES? She doesn't have to get in her swim suit! (All though she always tells me she is going to wear her STRING BIKINI to the beach.)
Her sister & her found this old DIET book from the 50's. (REALLY) My sister Auburn, who helps her every Wed., told me that they read in this book something about using BUTTERMILK on your cereal. I thought Auburn was joking until she sent me to the store one day with that on the list. I questioned what she was going to use it for. YEP, she told me all about the diet book! LOL. Actually, SICK. Just the thought makes me want to gag.
ANYWAY, while we were going thru everything Saturday we were making piles. (Pictures, garbage, history, etc.!) At one point there was a bunch of history at once. Then we came to this REALLY OLD Chart... It said it was a "CALORIE COUNTER". I held it up to show her. With her straightest face, she just said "HISTORY"! Then she started laughing. I thought I was gonna loose it! She is so funny.
3) After a while we came to this small paper that had a simple drawing of a person
itching their BUM.
It said at the top "Scratch Pad". (or something) It had no directions! Just that drawing. I looked around to see if it went with something. NOPE! I think I asked her if we should throw it away. I guess she distracted me & put it somewhere because about an hour later I found it. I laughed & I asked why she was keeping it. She sat there & just told me that when she looks at it... she just starts laughing. I came up with our conclusion! (My sisters & I have done this since we were young.) I told her that I promise that I was not going to throw it away! I HID IT. Now she'll find it when she doesn't expect it!
4) She had some large pictures that were damaged. I saw she had the same pictures in an 8 x 10. I did not suggest that she throw them away, since they had my Grandpa Riggs in them. (My Grandpa passed away when I was in kindergarten from leukemia.) My grandma said, "I think I can throw these away.".. But she couldn't. So, we decided to cut out his face & put it in one of her (100) unused frames. She put it on her nightstand. As she went to put it there, she turned to me & said, "This was that same face he had the night he came to me when I was driving to babysit you guys when you were little. It was so late at night on Southern by Lindsay & there was a ditch to the side of the road. I started to fall asleep & Grandpa woke me up & took the wheel. He looked at me with his smile.. where he would sort of bite his lip." I had heard this story so many times, but I love when she talk about him. I told her that I was glad he came to her that night, because there are so many great-grand kids that she would not have met & so many things that I am so glad she was here for. I do not know how my G-ma does it. I can not go a day with out Lance.
5) Later, she found some more letters... A bunch that were from My grandpa to her addressed: Miss Mary Malone. Then there were some from her to him. Most of these were when he was serving in the Navy. She read a few parts in the letters & then said, "I am going to keep these letters right here on the desk, since they are from my sweet heart." I got a little emotional when she said that. She is such a trooper!
I love my Grandma. I am so glad that she has been around this long. I hope I can be just like her when I am that age. She is such an example to me & everyone. To all of you that know her, I am sure you feel the same.
13 comments:
It's totally just a funny thing to do. You just go to google .com and put "Suzanne needs" in the google search. Like if you were going to google a recipe or something. Try it and you will see. Mine are not true at all. It's just funny to see what can come up.
Sometimes when people are writing a little blurb about their husbands they just write DH. I've seen it many times and just the other night a cam across a blog that refered to her husband as DH. I assumed it meant Dear Husband, but I think that is stupid. I would never refer to my husband as Dear Husband. So, I was just wondering if anyone else knew what it meant and if Dear Husband was correct. Soemtimes my mind just needs to think outloud. Notice it was late when it was posted and I was curious.
I am so glad you did that room, because I was going to have to do it. It is hard to get her to throw away things. You gotta love her!
Grandma's are so special. Value the time you have. She seems so cute! I love to talk to older people, they are wise and have been through soooo much.
She sounds like a super fun grandma. No wonder you are able to hang out with her so many saturdays. You are very selfless.
can i just tell you how much i loved this post?!!! at first i was laughing out loud, then i started to tear up! ok a) i think i have seen this diet book. is it an old weight watchers one? and they have me get them buttermilk all the time too & offer it to me to drink. i just can't do it though! sick! b)she always tells me that story about keith coming to her too. i love the way she talks about him! it is so sweet! i'm excited to see the picture by her bed. i bet she LOVES it there! i love mary!
I too got a lump in my throat reading about Grandma and her "sweetheart". She still misses him so bad. Although everyone will miss her when she dies, we will all be so happy knowing that her & grandpa are together again.
Your Grandma is so cute! Cherish the time you have with her. My Grandma just passed away last month and you really love the memories you have. I think it is cute what you do for her.
What a sweet post Suzy! What a great grandma! Cute, cute stories.
Grandmas are the best. I love hearing stories from my grandmas. I love seeing Grandma Riggs (yeah, my fam calls her that just because your fam is practically our fam too!) at showers. She is so sweet. I teared up too when you told the story of her talking about your grandpa. So sweet!
We love our Grandma Mary! She really is a grandma to all of us! What a treat to get to spend time with her!
ok I am crying now! That is so sweet, I cant believe Grandpa has been gone that long! I love Grandma she is a Great example to all of us!!
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