Grandma: Entry 1

I got the call today that Hospice evaluated my Grandmother's failing health, and informed us that based on her condition she only has a few more weeks to live. Her health has steadily and marginally declined every day since my Pap'as accident a year ago. In the last few months she has fallen into the merciless fingers of Dementia and all the side-effects of that horrid disease. I wanted to record some of my memories now, while I can still call her and remind her of them. I will probably be posting these memories frequently over the next weeks. They are mainly my way of processing and coping. They are also for my family. I'm going to tell you about her and who she was to me and for me.
A bit of background:
My grandmother is a pretty impressive woman. She grew up a pretty little flirt, all the rage with the boys. She was quite the looker. She went to Duke University and met her 3 best friends. They called themselves the Boresome Foursome. They did all kinds of crazy things. My grandma's freshman year roommate was a total hippy, according to Grandma. She smoked everything, and "slept in the nude". Grandma promptly requested a room transfer. One of the boresome foursome, Joyce Wine, is still her closest friend to this day. They were each others maid-of-honor, and they saw each other almost every year of their life. Joyce is a florist. Her husband is hilarious. I loved when they would come and visit because Grandma would try to impose her rules of the house on them, and Lyman would have none of it! One time during dinner Lyman started to snag some cookies before the meal was over. She told him he had to clean his plate before he could have dessert (the dessert that he brought) and he told her her would eat his dessert whenever he pleased no matter what she said! We all died laughing, and it was the first time I'd ever seen my grandmother be truly put in her place with so few words. I loved Lyman from that moment. And Joyce would always bring the most beautiful arrangements of flowers for the table.

After her first year at Duke, my grandma transferred to Tufts University. Although she was studying English and Writing, she informed me early on that most women go to college to get their M.R.S. degree. I didn't understand that till I was older. Then I found it quite amusing. But she went on after college to be an English professor. She met my papa, Richard F. Brooks, who was a complete stud back then. There's a picture of my papa with his brothers, and when I saw it for the first time I didn't believe it at first. No joke, they looked like Abercrombie models. All four of them. And Grandma and Papa's wedding pictures are straight out of a Hollywood movie. I mean, its pretty crazy how attractive they were. No wonder Grandma can never understand my singleness. She never was! Right after they got married they became Christians. I'll bet theres a whole score of stories I've never heard about that courtship.

Pretty soon after their marriage, they had my dad. Then my Uncle John. Then God called them to go be missionaries in Nigeria. So they went, and had my Aunt BethAnn there. My dad and Uncle John were sent to boarding school because that was the law then. It was hell. Very traumitizing experience. But thats a different story. They saw miraculous things in Nigeria. The Lord was truly working through them. When they returned to the states they had my Uncle Bill.

Stay tuned for: Grandma's writing career