More about Norwegian Grandmas

Only this time it's not about my Grandma. One of my cousins (who shared Grandma Isabelle with me) wrote me about her Grandmother on the other side of her family.

It [hearing about a brain tumor] always makes me think of what Grandma H. used to say...if we were completely saddened and puzzled by someone's death. She would always say that when she was young, death was a part of life. She saw her own brother operated on - on the kitchen table of course, and he died there as well. He had diabetes and they knew enough to know he had a bad pancreas. Apparently that's what they were fishing for (with the soup ladle)...anyway, her point was that today, death surprises us. In the old days, it was almost inevitable and moods were good if you escaped it. Interesting perspective. Of course, that coming from the woman who insisted that Aunt Louise was kept alive by sugar water and she would have no such thing. So she made herself a no code in her living will...forever barring SUGAR WATER (really, a cure all for anything). Then she had a 'spell', no one did everything, and it pissed the hell out of her. My sister and I laughed about that for a week.

Grandma was quite a character. She wore these STURDY brown tie up shoes that had a heel that hit the wooden floor like a shot. And she was a sturdy woman. Very no nonsense and didn't allow laughing at the dinner table. Of course, she would look up from the head of the table where we would all be eating one of her sunday dinners...and say, "IS EVERYONE MAKING OUT?" which would send all of us teenagers into gales of laughter...which always made her say, "Enough of this nonsense". It's funny that my family has a sense of humor on either side.

This reminded me of what my Dad would tell his junior high class when they were slacking off. "Get humping everyone!" (unfortunately for a junior higher, he worked at the same school I also attended, so I heard all about it forever.) It makes me laugh now, though. The beauty of getting older I guess.

Feel free to comment with any stories of your grandparents or parents if you feel inclined. I guess I'm in a nostalgic mood and I'm interested. Also, for any of my cousins reading this, anything else you'd want to write about Grandma B. would also be wonderful. I have more stories but I don't want this blog to turn into endless stories of my family and pictures of my cats and nephews.