Quarantine Edition #3
A bit of a somber Happy Tuesday over here surrounded by the grey skies of NYC. This past week, my Grandma Maxine passed away alone in her apartment in CA. She was a feisty and fiery woman who was often difficult to get along with. I have guilt for not having a lot of contact with her in her later years. She was a beauty in her young age and she loved her sons, baseball, and swearing. I’ve been thinking about her and the memories I have of her:
-One time she was babysitting me and my siblings while my Mom and Dad went away on a rare trip. We lived at the top of a hill and she loaded us all into the minivan and went inside to get something. Somehow, the car shifted out of gear and the minivan (with us inside) went straight down our hill and plowed over the green grass of our neighbors yard where we came to a halt in front of the neighbor’s window to their house.
-My sister Christy and I would go over on the weekends and spend the night. We’d make play dough, whirl around on the sit-n-spin, and madly crash around with Hungry Hungry Hippos. She would watch baseball and yell at the TV and we’d sit there blissfully playing.
-When I went to visit her after college, my sister and I went to her house and she was so excited to show me this print of NYC she had in her living room. She got it just because she said she was inspired by my move to NYC. She always bragged about her grandchildren and often told me about all of my cousins and their latest accomplishments whenever I would call her.
-One thing I remember that brought her so much joy was her garden. She always had a great thumb and we’d tour her tomatoes with her Dachshund.
I do not have a garden or a green thumb, but as an ode to my Grandma, I thought I’d look up Demeter this week—The goddess of Harvest and Agriculture. I hope she’s prancing around somewhere with Persephone tending to a garden with many dachshund’s following her, and watching her beloved baseball games.
“Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom. -Rumi ”
