By Cindy Price
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SUNDAY, SEPT. 9, IS
GRANDPARENT'S DAY.
BUT ANY DAY CAN BE
GRANDPARENT'S DAY FOR KIDS
AND GRANDPARENTS ALIKE.
KEEP A LIST OF HOME AND/
OR CELL PHONE NUMBERS
HANDY AND SURPRISE THEM
WITH AN IMPROMPTU CALL.
THE IMPORTANT THING
TO REMEMBER IS THAT
GENERATIONS KEEP IN TOUCH.
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“It’s too bad you never met my Texas
grandma,” I told my sweet husband. “She
would have said you were a doll-bones.”
That was my Grandma’s description
of anyone who was truly nice. “She’s ah
dawl-bones,” Grandma would say in her
southern drawl. I’ve never heard anyone
else use that expression. And I haven’t heard it since Grandma died
many years ago.
A true southern lady and a card-carrying Baptist, Grandma never
used any profanity. At least that I ever heard. My favorite saying of
hers was, “Good land o’ livin’!” Or if the occasion merited a shorter
exclamation, “Good land!”
Although I was born Cynthia, I was always CindyGirl to Grandma.
I can look back today and see the profound influence she had, and still
has, on my life.
I remember the gifts she gave to me when I was a little girl. One time
it was two goldfish – an orange one and a black one – in a fish bowl.
Grandma herself had a fishpond she made in her backyard. Popular
today, ornamental fishponds were rare back then.
After the two goldfish passed on, I got another followed by another
– it seemed I always had goldfish. Finally 25 years ago, I dug my own
goldfish pond. I have had a pond ever since, even taking my beloved
goldfish with me when I moved.
Another time when I was little, Grandma gave me packets of flower
seeds. She was quite the gardener, having lavish flowerbeds, rose
gardens, and fruit trees in her large yard. I planted the flower seeds
and to my wonderment, they grew into beautiful multi-colored Sweet
Williams. Now more commonly called dianthus, these perennials grace
my flowerbeds today.
Grandma sewed, crocheted, painted and was very much a craftsperson. When I was ten, recovering
from having my tonsils removed, she
gave me a book about origami, the
Japanese art of paper folding. I learned
to fold animal and bird shapes. Only
a few years ago, while hosting some
Japanese businessmen, I took a sheet
of paper from the copier and folded it
into a crane, scoring big points with my
important guests. Thanks, Grandma.
Grandma was born in the cowboy
country of rural West Texas. When
World War II broke out, she and her
family left the farming and ranching life,
and moved to the big city of Lubbock.
This was so the men – her husband and
two sons – could join the war effort
overseas while she and her daughter
became nurses.
Only a few years ago, I learned that
Grandma also worked at an Air Force base during the war. She was
a “Rosy the Riveter,” helping to build airplanes. Today I have a small
knife she fashioned from leftover airplane parts. The handle is cracked,
but the knife stays in my kitchen where it is still used today.
In May 1970, Grandma lost almost everything she owned to the
huge tornado that devastated Lubbock. Over two-dozen people were
killed, including Grandma’s next-door neighbor. I was a teenager then,
and with the rest of my family, helped pick through the rubble that used
to be her home. Not a single wall was left standing, yet she was only
slightly injured when the house came down around her. I never saw her
cry or show any self-pity. She soon rebuilt on the same foundation.
Grandma lived a long and full life. She outlived all of her siblings, her
husband, and children. She lived long enough to see her granddaughter
(CindyGirl) become a grandmother too. A year after her doctor made
her quit smoking at age 92, she died peacefully in her sleep in her bed
in the home she rebuilt 28 years after the great tornado.
I once told her, “Grandma, did you know your granddaughter is a
grandmother?” Then in her 90s, I didn’t think she understood what
I was saying. Good land, it was hard enough for me to wrap my mind
around that concept myself. But I knew I was going to be a good
grandmother because I had such a great example. My Grandma was
a doll-bones.
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