Big Grandma and the "Big 90"

My grandma will turn 90 on July 29 - in celebration of this, all her children and grandchildren have selected a week in which we can honor her in any way. Our week was last week and it was full of events and memories, culminating in a daytrip to Cando to see her. Earlier in the week, the kids drew pictures for her, we made her a visor that said "Big Grandma", and painted a canvas. The canvas turned out wonderfully - we divided it into four parts and Sophie, Lucy and John each got to paint a picture of Big Grandma. Next time I go to Cando, I'll get a picture of it to post.

My favorite activity though was the creation of nine "Top Ten" Lists. I had the wonderful opportunity to work at Neumann Rexall Drug with Grandma - my first real job that lasted from freshman year in highschool until the summer of my freshman year in college. The first list I did was "Top Ten Things You Taught Me About Retail Work." From there I went on to "Top Ten Grandma Sightings" and so on.... all in all, there were 90 wonderful memories of Grandma. (The hard drive on our home computer crashed yesterday, so I don't have the documents to share here...) When I read them to Grandma (she can't see well due to diabetes, glaucoma, and corneal transplants) she started sharing her memories too. For example, when I read, "Always, no matter how many other customers are in line, leave the money on top of the till drawer and count out the change to the customer." She shared a story about a man who always insisted that he gave her $20 when, in fact, he would only give her $10. I'd forgotten that part of the story, but there it was... part of her history and now mine. Next time I go to Cando, I'm going to take a videocamera, read the lists again, and tape our conversation. That spontaneous kind of talk is so often the very best thing.