My grandmother has been an ongoing topic of conversation in my family for the last several years. She is progressing through dementia - some days she's good, some days she's not. This past weekend, I was remembering that she used to sing all the time. Notably, she had a song for each of the 5 grandchildren.
The first cousin, You Are My Special Angel, was born before my uncle, his father, died. Happier times. Then, when my aunt was 8 months pregnant with her 2nd son, my uncle was killed. So, my poor cousin was born into tragedy. My grandmother was obviously destroyed by losing her only son, and at only 19 years old at that, and she has never really recovered from that. But, the birth of grandchildren did bring light into her life...and his song was You Are My Sunshine.
I was the next grandchild born, and thankfully (for a variety of reasons), I was a girl. From that time on, I could do no wrong! (Lucky me!) My nickname from my grandparents was Queenie, and my grandmother used to sing You Light Up My Life to me all the time.
When I say sing, I mean SING! My grandmother would BELT out a song. Gram used to say she was quiet and shy and then something happened to her... I'm not sure I believe the quiet and shy part was ever her M.O. Gram was always a few bricks shy of a full load. She would come down the stairs and flip her false teeth in and out and make monster sounds so that we would scream!!
She and I spent many Friday and Saturday nights together through my childhood. I would have her sit on the floor and I would sit in the chair in the living room and we'd play hair dresser. (Gram's hair was always short and permed. She would put her hair up in curlers every single night, even though she had a perm.) I would sit behind her and decide if I were going to be the Good Witch or the Bad Witch and proceed to brush or comb her hair accordingly. Suffice it to say, I'm glad she had a high pain threshold!!! We would play 500 Rummy or Boggle for hours and have pretzel rods and twizzlers.
Whenever she made the bed or did the laundry, my grandmother was always singing something. Her absolute favorite was Elvis. Fools Rush In was probably her #1 favorite song - and my sister and her husband eventually used that as their wedding song 2 years ago.
Back to the topic, though...
When my cousin was born, almost 3 years after me, he was in fact a special angel to Gram, and I would attest that of all the grandkids he is the favorite...but that's an argument for another time. For some strange reason, none of us can remember what his song was, though. I may ask Gram today when I talk to her... she may remember...she may not.
Lastly, my sister was a surprise 6 years later. Gram loved the Wind Beneath My Wings, and that became her song. My sister doesn't have the close relationship with Gram that I do, but she is special to her, nonetheless.
Gram has few words of praise for her two daughters, but the grandchildren! Her Pride and Joy, as she calls us. We are lucky to have her in many, many ways. She would give you the shirt off her back (and in her crazy, threatening way, you would take it, god damn it!). I think we are lucky to have such funny, singing memories of her, as she loses her memories and becomes harder to deal with. I hope that we can remind her of happy times as these months and this disease progress, and maybe she'll still remember to sing...
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