Letters to Grandma

By Paul E. Tackett

Grandmother died in 1957. This book is written as though she is capable of reading it wherever she is, and is an attempt to give her some idea how things have changed since her death. It also is a reminder of how she, and many other grandmothers might have lived while they were still with us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483518688

Book preview

9781483518688

Prologue

The following letters are to my paternal grandmother who was in many ways the whole meaning of my life. She was the foundation upon which I built my ideas and thusly, the standards which I used to make most of my life decisions. She, however, probably never knew about any of those decisions because of my young age at her death. These letters were not written during her lifetime which would have been from 1896 to 1957. That implies, of course, that they may not have been written expressly for her to read, but for anyone to read who wishes to do so. I have tried not to offend friends and family who were commonly known to both of us, and especially those who are living now. It may be more exciting reading if I told more about some of the spicy things they did, and the exotic way some of my relatives live, but the letters were not written for that reason. Perhaps a future writing will be.

My Grandmother was a sweet and naive person as I knew her, and many of the things her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, not to mention great-great and perhaps great-great-great grandchildren have done would be quite shocking and embarrassing to her. So, while they may be implied occasionally, they will not be discussed in any detail.

My grandmother was a very devout lady with a strong belief in Christian teachings. I can still see her sitting at the foot of my bed reading from the Bible, or reading Bible Stories to me as I was going to sleep. When I was very small and visiting my grandparents, I slept in a daybed in their bedroom pushed up against a wall on the opposite side of the room from their bed. I always was required to go to bed before the adults. She and my grandfather usually went to bed soon after I had been put to bed either by my mother or by my grandmother. Many nights I lay in bed watching as she would kneel by her bedside and read her Bible and say her prayers before retiring. As I grew older, I often stayed with her in the summers and helped her while my grandfather worked. It seemed she was always ill. Mostly I remember severe asthma. Some people thought she was over-dramatic about it and even called her a big baby. However when she had an episode I could often see panic and fear on her face. I may have been too worried about her and over responded to her myself. However, as we know more now about various chronic diseases and genetic illness it seems quite logical that her illnesses were indeed real, whether or not her response to them was too heavily dramatized. I will never really know for sure. I do know that I have, since those days been of the opinion that one should never make fun of someone’s response to illness, especially when it can be potentially life-threatening. Even if the patient’s response to it is over done, that in itself can indicate a problem that should probably be addressed. In those days, though, there was such a stigma attached to any psychological therapy or counseling, no one in their right mind would submit to it.

At some point things began to change. Her asthma became more severe and more frequent. In addition, she began to complain about other illness and pain, particularly abdominal pain. She was sent by her doctor in the Spring of 1957, March I believe, for exploratory surgery, which was not that uncommon in those days. Now, with all the imaging and scans and X-rays, it is less common, if necessary at all. Many kinds of surgery are non-invasive, and require practically no time for recovery by comparison. Whatever they did, she seemed better for several months. However, on Saturday, September 7, of that year, she became ill and bedfast overnight. Sunday she spent in bed. Monday she was taken to the hospital and the following Sunday, September 15, she died at about 9:30, that morning. My paternal Grandmother was gone. My childhood ended.

January, 23, 2013

Dear Grandma,

I do not know how much you are aware of what happens in the world since it has been so long since you left it. It is a much different place, but it still has many good and many bad things. It is still the only planet we are able to live on, but there are serious inquiries into ways to get to other, more distant planets which may be able to support our species in some way. Some scientists are even working on man-built space stations enormous enough to hold very great numbers of human beings. However, you might be interested in knowing that not long after you left us, men began building rockets similar to the ones that the German Nazi’s sent to blow up London and other places in England. They are much larger than the German rockets, and are now not only built for use in wars, but are designed and are large enough that by now they can take two or three people, even more at once into space. Some men have landed on and walked on the moon, and several more have orbited (flown around) the earth, and very soon there will be expeditions even to Mars. There is a Space Station which orbits the earth and has existed for a few years now. I don’t remember the exact year they started building it, but as you can imagine, it took many years to build and was quite