Thursday, January 05, 2006

Hold them close

The first winter that I lived here in Steamboat my grandmother in Indiana died (it's hard to believe it was eleven years ago). As the time passed I think I miss her even more. I still have all the letters she wrote me while I lived out here. Several times a year I'll go and shoot the shotgun I inherited from here and when I pull the trigger I think of what kind of badass she must have been. There are times when I wish I could call her up and get her opinion on things (she wasn't one to hold back what she thought either).

During the Great Depression, her and my grandfather lived down in Divide Colorado on a ranch. I don't have her memoirs near me to check the on details but somewhere I have a photo that they had taken one day in Colorado Springs. They were so young and it was such a hard time but they look happy in the photo.

Granny was an amazing woman. A fearless woman I suspect. She was on one of the first girls high school basketball teams in Indiana. She insisted on traveling and I hold her responsible for the travel bug that myself and my two siblings share (even though I haven't exercised it so much lately). If there was hunting, butchering or what not to be done she wasn't hesitant to do it. And she made some mean egg noodles.

Such a power she had that she haunted the car my brother inherited from her. To this day if I see a Chevy Celebrity, I think of her.

When she would meet the friends we had, she never judged them and in fact she loved them. I remember the joy that some of them would bring her.

I can only hope that she would be proud of me and if not at least happy for me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

it was 1996