Visitor

Jenn's grandma came over for supper tonight. Jenn works most days till 4:30, so supper was up to me. It turned out ok, but that is not the point of this post.

Grandma Marie is an amazing woman. She is British. She was a teenager through WWII in the U.K. As a 17 year old, she enlisted in the Women's Land Army. This involved a lot of farm work. Immediately after the war, she was married to Fred, and moved to Edmonton, where she lived from 1947 till only a few years ago. Almost all of those years were in the same house. Fred died a few years ago, and that's why she moved out to Saskatoon. Her youngest son, and my father-in-law, brought her out to Saskatchewan to help take care of her (he has also brought out Grandma's sister-in-law to take care of her as well...he is another story of an amazing person).

Grandma can tell stories about her youth like they were actually yesterday. In fact, she can recall her youth better than I can recall yesterday. There could be a couple of explanations for this: 1) Grandma's life in her youth was very eventful (war time, etc), thus making it easier to remember, 2) she has a great memory, 3)my life is pathetic and not worth remembering and that is why I can't remember yesterday.

Makes me wonder if I'm wasting my life away. Obviously the major event in Grandma's life was unwanted (the war), and I'm sure she would be perfectly to have lived a quiet life in the U.K. But the war did come, and it brought a young Canadian soldier to the island, who fell in love with a young little British lady, and they would have three boys, the youngest of which would marry and have a daughter who would in turn marry - me. Woot.

This post doesn't really have a linear path. I just want to pay respect to grandma, who is a great story teller, and a walking history book. We should all take some time to ask questions and listen to our elders.