More Grandmother Stories to Make You Smile

My grandmother always taught me, "If you don't have a home, family, and church, you don't have anything." ~Jennifer Hudson

See the beautiful grandmothers here. At my book event today, I asked the grandmothers to raise their hands and almost everybody there did. Well, there were a couple of guys in the back who didn't. But I love grandmothers. Often when I'm at a book fair or festival, young people will stop at my table and buy my books for their grandmothers. While I happen to think my books are good reading for anybody, I'm fine with grandmothers reading them. And I was fine with having so many wonderful grandmothers come to my book event today. Thanks to all of you and to the rest of you who wanted to come, but too many miles or other circumstances kept you away. Maybe I'll have another book party in the summer when Small Town Girl is released.

Now on to a couple of grandmother stories. The first one is from Diana.

Grandmothers are very special. I only had one growing up. I remember her walking over 20 miles one way to work to support her family. The laundry was done by a wringer washer and I would get to help hang the clothes up on the line. She smelled of peppermint and in the spring her home smelled of fresh lilacs which is also my most favorite thing. When I smell those things I think of her. I have a picture of her, probably one of the last ones taken of her, sitting and reading her bible. O, it is so precious to me. Loved my grandma B so much.

 

Another thing I can remember is as we were growing up she would teach us our ABC's. Only her version was we had to learn them backwards. I must say I never got it. She went to be with the Lord in 1998. But the day she died I had visited her. I think it was the holy spirit that told be to visit her that day. For it was our last time together. Now grandma hadn't really talked at all much in the last couple years of her life. But this day while I was visiting, she said Diana, have you learned you ABC's yet? I said sorry I had not. She said ok let's do this one more time.  I said ok. So she starts to say them and she said them the right way not backwards. My grandma had alzheimer's  for a lot of years. So I know God was there for her to have one good day with us. My grandma B went to be with the Lord that night. I miss her. But I'm always reminded of her in the smell of lilacs and her peppermint candy.

 

Thanks, Diana, for sharing about your Grandma B. I love that you had that last time to get the "ABC's" right, even if your grandmother had to change the way to do that. It's interesting how smells can lure us into the past and take us back to times with our grandparents or loved ones. 

 

Sue has a different kind of grandmother's story, but one I think will make you smile. She said her grandmother had a little trouble with left and right. I was one of those slow learners about left and right too. Who had time to think about all that when there were Jacks games to play? I was really good at Jacks. I did finally start getting the left and right bit straight in the 3rd grade when I got a ring to wear on my left hand. Sue says her grandmother was even a bit slower on the direction finding than me. Here's Sue's story.

 

When I was a kid, my official job was navigator when we took long trips. I would give my grandmother ample warning when we were going to change directions, because she could never remember which hand was left or right, and she told me not to point, that she had it under control. (HAH) So on one trip, after turning the wrong way and looking for somewhere to turn around I got pretty upset and said, LOOK, I'm gonna straighten you out once and for all. Your RIGHT hand is the one you WRITE with and your LEFT hand is the one LEFT over, GOT IT? She said she would be able to remember that and off we went. After another half hour or so, we had to make a turn. I told her way ahead where to turn, so she could think about it awhile. I had told her to go left and sure enough, we went (you guessed it) right. When we stopped to turn around, I got out of the car and said I was just going to walk, I would get there faster. After that, she let me point the way without complaint.

 

Isn't that the best thing about grandmothers? How they make us smile as we remember. I'm sure Sue wishes she could do some more navigating with her grandmother now. So many of you were fortunate enough to live close to a grandmother or to have one of them live with your family for a while. Patricia remembers going to visit her grandmother. 

My grandmother lived on the next farm so it was our custom to run across the field multiple times a day to visit. Nany taught us to make cookies, told us stories, and watched tv with us. She died at the age of 93 in 1990. I think that I will miss her for the rest of my life.

 

And her grandmother will always be alive in her memory. Thanks to all of you who have been sharing your memories. If you haven't entered, there's plenty of time. The deadline for entering in April 1, and we'd love to hear your grandmother stories too, with your permission, of course. 

Fun Book Event

It's Sunday night and my book event this afternoon at the Anderson County Library went great. Thanks to all of you reading friends and family who came out to hear me talk about writing about the Sixties in Small Town, America. In my case, that's Lawrenceburg.

When I decided to re-invent myself as a writer for the third or maybe it was the fourth time, I went back to basics and tried to write about something I knew really well. That turned out to be growing up in a small town back in the Sixties. A lot of the people who came to my book party today had already read some of my Hollyhill books so they knew that I had used how Lawrenceburg looked back then as the model for the town in the books, Hollyhill. I told them I had to change the name of the town because the Lawrenceburg Series just doesn't have the same ring as the Hollyhill Series.

I think my Lawrenceburg readers enjoy trying to figure out if I based my characters on any specific persons, but I never do that except for maybe a minor character here and there. Still, as I told them today, writers take what they discover about everyone they meet along with what they know or feel about themselves and put it in a stew pot on a little stove in the back of their head that's warmed by their creative fires. From those combined and cooked together characteristics come all our characters. This character might have somebody's ill temper or sunny smile while that one might have somebody else's fear of spiders or love of lilacs. I always feel as if my characters are totally a product of my imagination, but yet at the same time they become real enough to me that I sometimes think it might be nice if they would come by and have a cup of tea with me. Of course I wouldn't invite the rude or mean characters in to stay long. At least not until they changed their ways or gave me some new plot ideas.

But back to my book party. I do appreciate everyone who came. I love to talk about writing and about my books. Oh, let's face it. I just love to talk. And I love getting to know people. You know, so I can add all their fun characteristics to my pot of character stew for another book down the road. I gave away a lot of doorprizes and we played some just for fun Sixties Trivia. We focused in on some Lawrenceburg things, but we also talked about the Beatles and going to the moon. While some of the people there couldn't exactly remember about the Sixties since they hadn't discovered America by then. You know - been born. And some others of them were mere babies. But there were plenty of the rest of us who have been around a few decades and we had fun doing some remembering. Do you know what year the Beatles were first of the Ed Sullivan Show? What did the first man on the moon say? Stuff like that.

I've got a busy week ahead with a church workday Monday and my granddaughter in WV having a big fifth birthday. She was born on tax day, so her birthday is easy to remember. Then this weekend I'll be going to the Southern Kentucky Book Fest in Bowling Green, Kentucky. If you live in the area and make it to the Book Fair on Saturday, please come by to say hi. I'll be on a panel about My Old Kentucky Home Revisited; Novels about Kentucky at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Janna McMahan and Laura Benedict will also be on the panel. That's sure to be fun. I was on a panel with Janna in South Carolina. She's a great writer. I haven't met Laura yet, so I'm looking forward to that. You can check out other authors there on their website www.sokybookfest.org. Harlan Coben and Mitch Albom are their headline authors. So come enjoy a fun day of books.

May you have a blessed week.