Day 340

Day 340: Yesterday, I said my Grandma Evy had eras in her life. It is true. She had a colorful, difficult, sometimes poverty-stricken childhood. She began dating my grandfather when she was 16, married him when he returned from his mission, and set up a household of her own. He was the bishop for 14 years, which made her the bishop’s wife for 14 years. They had four children. She helped raise her younger half-siblings. She had health problems and they moved to California to see if warmer weather would help. They returned three years later. She had a radio show. According to newspaper clippings, she carried on a busy social life, hosting clubs and luncheons. And then her husband was diagnosed with melanoma and died only a few months later. He was 51. She was 46. She never remarried. She eventually returned to Pasadena’s warmer weather and lived there until her passing at the age of 82.

Grandma in her late forties. Her hair began to turn a beautiful silvery gray when she was in her thirties.

This older woman is the grandmother I knew. When I was old enough to remember her, she was the little old lady from Pasadena. I watched the Rose Parade every New Year’s Day because it was close to Grandma’s house. She lived in an apartment on Michigan Avenue with a courtyard that had a banana tree and walls covered with bright orange hibiscus flowers. She went to college in her sixties. She joined a writers group in her seventies. She redefined.

Grandma sent me signed books from her writer friends, always accompanied by a note with the backstory. I’m sure she did that so that I would understand their worth, and how much love she was sending with it. This was her “Grandmothering from Afar” era, and might I say, she rocked it.

Some of the books her author friends signed. Check out those autographs! Pretty snazzy.

#momscompanytowels #redefinition #grandmasgotgame