My Grandmother

Day 120 – May 18^th is a very special date for me. It is my late grandmother’s birthday. As a younger person I use to hear all these grandma jokes and could not understand that. For me she was my most beloved woman in my life, the embodiment of unconditional love. My grandfather was born 4 days later, on May 22^nd of the same year 1905. My parents separated when I was a baby so my grandparents took a very active role in raising me.  So many of my childhood memories have to do with them, their house was my safe heaven, my fortress, my castle, but especially a place made of dreams, a place that I find it almost hard to believe could really exist. I could do there whatever I wanted, everything was game, as if its sole existence was for my pleasure. She was born in Sumatra, Indonesia to a German father and a Japanese mother. She grew up in ranches surrounded by jungles and away from children, she had animals and plants for friends and they stay her friends for life. After she met my grandfather they decided to move out of Germany and immigrated here, and so they spared themselves the horrors of WWII. And they built

She got seriously injured in a terrorist attack when she was 50 years old, an attack that almost claimed her life and left her with some disabilities she had to fight for the rest of her life. This happened only three years before I was born, but this is how I always knew her with one leg shorter than the other, limping and as she got older it bothered her more, though she never complained. Only now I understand how much she was probably still struggling with the effects of the injuries, and how much she never ever complained. She just took it in her stoic attitude and kept being such an amazing woman. I loved everything about their house, I would play dress-ups for hours with all her fancy dresses and jewelry, and I’d play in their huge yard that when I was little still housed many chickens, and rabbits, and exotic fruits that could be found nowhere else in our country. She cooked for me all the foods I liked best, she’d play tea party with me. There are no words that can properly describe her and I’m still thinking of her with so much love after so many years.

I am so thankful that I had such an amazing grandma. I am thankful to have someone who bestowed so much love on me and taught me how to really love a child. I feel I was blessed to have her as my grandma.