Memories of my Grandma

I talked on the phone with my Grandma today. She's turning 90 June 21st. I can't believe it. She said that she couldn't believe how fast time had passed. I was reminiscing with her about when I was little. But my grandmother has had a stroke and she told me that it took away many of her good memories.

I wanted to try to remember a few things right now--because my grandma doesn't remember them. Then I can tell her when I visit next time.

I remember a night when my grandma stayed over our house. We had a large living room and it had a big rocking chair with flowered designs embroidered into the seat and back where you'd lean against it. My grandma was holding me, rocking me in the chair. It was dark, it may have been raining. I remember her singing to me and I was warm and safe and happy.

I remember her making up stories to make us jump with mock fear and giggle.

I remember sleeping over her house. We played Old Maid and Go Fish. We used a jar of buttons that were of all shapes and sizes. The buttons were for us to pretend we were playing poker like the grown-ups. We made bets with buttons and played the games over and over again on my grandma's large dining room table. The table was so big it filled up the room in her house. You had to squeeze by it in some places. The carpet had always been green and flowers filled the large window at the end of the dining room.

We'd make cookies, dye eggs for Easter and we loved to cook marshmallows in my grandma's microwave. They'd puff up to enormous size and when you took them out, they collapsed on themselves. We'd eat the caramel-flavored goo off of the plate. You had to eat it quickly because it would get too hard to eat quickly as it cooled.

She had a big smile, big hugs, black hair and glasses. She let us read fairy tales at night in the rooms we slept in when we slept over. She had a big red book of Grimm's fairy tales that I loved so much. When I was little, she'd read them to us.

I have many more good memories, but these are what I'm thinking of right now.

I voted! A tradition I learned from my mom

When I was a little girl, I remember going with my mom and watching her vote. The place we voted at was inside the city motor pool or fire station--I'm not sure which because I only remember a few things distinctly. It was a large building that had booths with fabric curtains set up inside. Outside the building, people shouted, held signs and gave out slips of paper that encouraged us to vote for a particular candidate. The booths were large and the election helpers would give my mom a card that she put into the machine. I remember the metal on metal sound the curtain made when you closed it. It surrounded you. The voting was very private.

I went to early voting this year. Apparently, El Paso, TX had the lowest early voter turn-out in a decade! I can believe it. It seemed empty where I went to vote, though the lighting was cheerful and everyone was glad to see me to use the touch-screens of democracy.

I vote because I want my children to vote. I vote because I want politicians to know I exist and that I'm watching. I know that as individuals, our voices are often limited or seem limited. But if everyone showed that they were paying attention, by casting a vote... one way or another... "they" will know and take notice in the government.

I miss my mother. I hope that carrying on in her footsteps in small ways, ways that I can remember her and cherish those memories, too, that she lives on. I always think of her when I vote.