Monday, November 7, 2011

4 Generations of Crazy

So I may or may not have mentioned before that about a year and a half ago, right after Isabel was born, my grandma got really sick.  She's always been a 'really tough old hag' and I say that out of complete respect.  She'd go out with my grandpa, my dad, and my uncle hunting, and she could out shoot all three of them.  She would take me fishing and spank my butt if I threw a fit about touching the worms or if I complained about being tied to a giant rock or spare tire.  (She didn't want me to drown.) 

This is my grandma, me, and my little brother, having a tailgate picnic during the deer hunt.  I think I was 3 here.

She's had several heart surgeries, the first of which when she was only 45, and other random things that just come with getting older.  Every day for as long as I remember she would get up in the morning, have something light to eat, walk up a hill, and then come home and eat a big healthy breakfast, and when I would go to stay with her, I would have to do the same thing.  "It keeps your heart pumpin'."  So it came as a big surprise to all of us when she was suddenly hospitalized in June 2010.  She had a form of the herpes virus that causes cold sores, but it had moved backwards into her brain and turned into encephalitis.  She was pretty much unconscious for almost 2 months, and we didn't think she would come out of it.  Due to the amount of time she spent in bed, her legs haven't been able to get strength back, and her mind isn't as sharp as it was before, but Grama is still crazy as ever.  She lived 3 hours away in an assisted living home near my uncle, and so when we get the chance we go see her.  We always try to make sure to take pictures when we go.  I went through a time in my life when I didn't fully appreciate her, and I always wondered what it would be like if my grandpa was still around, because he died when I was 4.  My dad likes to joke that Grama would have killed him off by now anyways, and how that might actually be what happened, because Grama didn't want an autopsy done. 


 I know she doesn't have a long time left, but I want Isabel to know about the lady that passed on her crazy to my dad, who then passed it to me, and I'm sure it's going to be an inevitable fate for Isabel.  A short temper, the inability to communicate normal human emotion, OCD, unreasonable reasoning (like voting for Bill Clinton because he has nice hair and that shows character.....), high cholesterol, and so much more.


She doesn't understand anything Cangrejo says, but she thinks he's handsome and so she approves.  I know she's losing it because she says that I'm looking thinner.  One thing that I've always based her crazy on is that she goes by her middle name 'Maurine' because she thinks the name 'Julia' sounds like a floozy.  She was raised in Dingle, Idaho.  Bet you didn't know there was a town by the name of Dingle.  They have raspberries there so there's like.....Dingleberries hahaha.  When she's gone she's going to come back and haunt us because she was born a Bear Laker and they're supposed to die Bear Laker's, but she's spending her time farther North.

2 comments:

  1. This is a very loving and REAL tribute to your grandmother, Josie. {hugs}

    ReplyDelete