Everyone's Grandma

This year's trials and tribulations with the pandemic raging the nation and the rest of the world makes you realize how fortunate you are to have the people in your life. The New Year is nearly upon us and when you reflect on all the changes that we have all had to endure it makes you grateful for the previous times you were able to spend with an elderly parent or relative. Our elders have had life experiences that could teach us so much about the world around us if we just took the time to listen. The world was a different place for many of them and the lessons you could take away from their experiences are endless.

Our Mother grew up in an era when the television was just being introduced, man hadn't landed on the moon yet, World War two was ending but followed by the Korean War and Vietnam. She lived through the draft and the Civil Rights Movement. She came from a large family and was the eldest of eight children. Her Father worked for a farmer and her Mom was a housewife taking care of the family. Her parents raised chickens, turkeys, and guineas for meat and eggs. They planted a garden every year and had apple trees for fruit. Her Mother would gather eggs, can garden surplus and apples for the winter.

Our Mother brought a lot of what she had learned to her own family of five children. Growing up in small town Iowa we also grew a garden in the back yard. My brother's and I would go fishing for basically whatever we could catch and make dinner out of it. Our Mother also had a very strong work ethic that taught us the value of honest work.

Our Mother worked for a nursing home for twenty-five years as a registered nurses aid (CNA) and took her job responsibilities very seriously. Iowa gets some very severe winter storms, many with heavy cold snowfalls making getting to work seven miles away quite a chore. When the snow would be really deep with no way to get to work our Mom would worry about who was going to take care of the nursing home residents. Out came the snowmobiles and our Mother would hop on the seat the minute a snowmobile would arrive at our door and off to work she would go.

Our Mother worked until retirement age and then stayed home to take care of our Father who had fallen terminally ill. When our Father passed away it didn't take long for our Mother to go back to work. She became a Home Health Aid and was taking care of people in their homes giving them the best care she could provide. She finally retired for the second time officially when she was seventy-eight. Age does not keep her from helping where she can though because at eighty-seven years old she still attends her church, branches out doing puppy sitting for people who travel for work or pleasure, checks on other residents of the retirement apartment complex where she lives, she loves to feel needed and likes to keep busy in her community.

Our Mother is known by nearly everyone in her community for how friendly, caring, and reliable she has been through out her life. She has always been a peacemaker and tries to see the good in everyone. Her cheery disposition along with her smiling face makes you want to smile back at her no matter what the day brings you. The simple act of kindness goes a long way. You can't go anywhere with her without having to stop so her family and friends can speak with her. She is well loved, respected, and recognized everywhere she goes and has become everyone's beloved Grandma or Auntie.