I'll try to keep this as out of the bummer realm as possible. That being said, this post is inspired by the passing of my Grandma. It happened a week ago. I've been doing pretty alright with it. But today I saw the exhausted and overly stressed faces of my dad and Grandpa and I heard the quivering in my Grandpa's voice as he jokingly scolded the new ink that has appeared on my arm since the last time I saw him. I'm working away from home and I took an hour to Skype with a house full of relatives; some I haven't seen for way too many years. It was a happy group. Grandma would've been elated. The thing that I was having a difficult time with, was the fact that Grandma wasn't there. I wasn't using my, now famous among the family, jackassery to make her laugh hysterically. I didn't realize how much that would impact me.
Like I said though: keep it out of bummer town.
My Grandma was unreal. Such a hip lady. I remember her talking about how "rad" things like my comic book collection were when I was a kid. She overly emphasized the word but somehow, that made her a million times cooler. When my Grandpa would get fed up with my shenanigans, he wouldn't be able to even come close to giving me shit for fear of the wrath of that little spark plug of a woman. I once saw her scream a couple Jehova's Witnesses down the entire driveway. I wouldn't be surprised if they went home and decided Atheism was probably a good new life choice. Teach those bastards to try to tell my Grandma she probably isn't a good person because she finds that screwy religion... screwy. I think I've made my point that the lady was a total badass.
She may have been one tough cookie, as they say but she was also very sweet. She was always on my side. It probably played a role in turning me into the incredibly vain shit disturber that I am today. She always told me how proud she was of me; even if it was just for tying my shoes properly...at 17. Maybe she was mocking me. That would be the best! If my Grandma had that great of a sense of humour and I just never caught on... Never mind. She was a sweetheart. She was there for a good chunk of those big moments. My college grad comes to mind. I even mentioned her and Grumpy in my presentation that we all had to do as part of our final mark. All the girls in the class let out an, "Awwwwweeeee" in unison. Needless to say I had that crowd in the bag and I aced the final presentation. So, there she was, telling me she was so proud of me again. I was insanely proud to have her there. I made people meet my Grandparents because, well, obviously they're cool as shit!
Grandpa is still a total dude and I will always remember Grandma as a very kind and far tougher than me woman. She was an Okanagan farm girl after all. As hard as something like this is, I know she had a good life. I'm so grateful for being able to be her Grandson and of course I'm grateful for her having my back at every Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving... etc. dinner when somebody would get a little too sensitive about my comedic stylings and she would step in to bust up some heads for me. It feels a little like I lost someone that completely understood my goofball antics and never got sick of them but hey, at least I had that with her for as long as I did. All the great things have to come to an end. Those solid memorable, quirky moments will be with me, at least until my mind falls apart. I'm sure that's a ways off though.
