Grand Mothers

Aren’t Grandmother’s Wonderful?

In one short story I wrote, A Man for a Moment, I recall my grandmother as being a teacher, a comforter, and a bear, a mother bear. During my junior high years I spent every summer on the farm with grandparents and uncles. My grandmother taught me how to pick raspberries so I wouldn’t miss a single berry or break a branch. After I’d been supremely rebuked for driving the tractor in the wheat field to make a large figure eight, I hid in the basement in the potato bin. My four-foot-eight grandmother found me in the dark musty room, hugged me and promised everything would be all right. Fifteen minutes before supper that night my formerly angry six-foot uncle apologized for his earlier harsh criticism. Grandmothers are wonderful!

  I had many summer holidays to come to know and appreciate my grandmother. Jill, in Baggage burdens. didn’t. She only had two months, the summer she ran away from home. During that short time Jill came to know Josey, her grandmother, as a very wise, capable, loving person. That was sufficient for Jill to treasure her grandmother.

In Jill’s eyes Josey was awesome. Josey had salvaged a couple of Jill’s high school courses even though she quit attending. Josey, who lived in Oshawa, convinced the Brampton education officials to let Jill take two summer school courses. Jill changed from having no place to sleep to housing-sitting Josey’s Brampton mansion. When Jill rented out two spare bedrooms to a couple of women, Josey let Jill keep the rent money.

As good as Josey was, she had faults. Over estimating Jill’s love or Jill’s need for her was one. That mistake cost her over twenty years of being separated from her grand daughter. Josey also never fully understood her daughter’s love for her husband, Frank. Josey's ambitious desire to curb Frank’s drinking made her persona non grata. All communication with her daughter and her family was cut off for decades.

As author, I know Jill’s grandmother better than Jill does. I know Josey is very resourceful. Without Jill’s parents knowing it, Josey taps grape vines to know how her daughter's family is doing. She does the same for Jill, when Jill runs away. It takes longer for her to set up. I also know that Josey holds the keys to heal Jill, to convince Jill that she is a loveable, loving person.

Do you love your grandmother? Tell stories about her. What better way is there to keep her alive in your heart and that of those close to you?

From the little you’ve learned about Josey, a secondary character, you may wonder if I’ve done a good job in designing her character. Next blog I share a few tips I read about writing women characters in a novel. Then the character, Jill, in Baggage burdens. will also come under the microscope.