17). Funny Thing's happen....

I still wonder about this!

My Grandmother Yvonne died in 1993 the day after her husbands birthday and my brother's birthday, they were both named Norman and both born on the same day 60 years apart. I was supposed to see my Grandmother that day and give her a bath as she was so crippled from Reumatoid Arthritis. I really can only remember her walking once or twice. I would have dreams as a kid that she was really lying to us about not being able to walk. I never saw blood or a broken bone, I just did not understand why. I got to spend so much time with my Grandmother and I was her care taker on Saturday's while my Grandfather and my Father and my two brothers Norm and Pennie would run around town to town, bar to bar for the Vending Company that my Grandfather started. It was called Norwest Coin. My Grandfather even won an award in the early 1980's for Vendor of the year. I don't remember a Saturday that I was not at my Grandmother's. 6 weeks after my Grandmother died...... My Grandfather died. Two deaths in my family in 6 weeks, two of the most special people ever! I just felt lost, and then a bit relieved. Grandma was so sick and crippled, I could smell the death on her that last time I saw her. I think she knew..... That last day when I was supposed to go and bathe her and I put my hand thru the kitchen window and had to go and get stitches. I called her on the telephone and told her I could not make it as planned, but I was taking myself to the hospital to get stitches. She totally understood. Her very last words to me were......... I LOVE YOU KIKI.. I can still hear her telling me that.
Grandpa was never in the hospital. Every Saturday when I would go and clean house for them and pick up all the rotten apple cores next to Grandpa's brown chair and straighten up all the National Enquirer magazines he had strewn all around his chair, I would burn all of Grandma's papers. She never let one piece of paper go out in the trash. She kept the house closed up, she had a pool stick that she would lean against the door and the wall to make sure no one got in while my Grandfather was out doing the vending machines. She sat on this couch on her little brown cushion that should have been thrown away on a weekly basis. She was crippled and had a little pee bucket that she would use if I was not there or Grandpa was not there. She never complained. She would just tell me that she had Scarlett Fever as a kid and when you get it..... It leaves you with something. It left her immune system weak and she got Reumathoid Arthritis. You have no idea how many nights growing up as a kid I prayed to GOD never to give me Arthritis. I never prayed specifially for Reumathoid Arthritis........ I should have because now I have OsteoArthritis....... Damn it all to pieces on that one......... I prayed so hard I swear GOD heard me. I mean every night for years and years and years............. Makes me so mad that I have anything Arthritis! Seriously!
So, basically my Grandmother was so very crippled and she did not want anyone over to see her, she hid in the house, Grandpa did everything. He cooked for her, put her to bed, and she lived every day for years like that. I could not in my wildest dreams figure any of this out as a kid. Grandpa never went to the Doctor's, but every Saturday for years, he would say, " Kiki, does Grandpa look tired?" I always said NO, even if he did. He never went to the Doctor's but I began to notice when I would clean the bathroom that he was not making it to the bathroom on time. The same week Grandma died he went to the Doctor's finally..... They diagnosed him with Stage something colon cancer and the next day he was having a colostomy bag put in. I had never ever saw my Grandfather as being sick, I just saw different signs and signals that he was a little run down. Grandpa died within 5 weeks...... I picked him up and took him home from the hospital. He did not have his shirt on in the bed and asked me to go the locker across the room and gather up his clothes. When He slowly got up and stood up on the floor he just looked so sad it could make me cry at this moment. I saw the hole in his stomach.... I saw my Grandpa Cut open and a Chunk of skin out of his belly.......... I could have fainted right then and there! What the heck did they do to my Grandfather. He looked after my Grandmother and the Vending Business and all of us kids and my Dad, his only Son. He did not look out for himself and got so sick.
I remember going thru my Grandmother's belongings with my Dad after they died. My parents were going to sell the house on Gilchrist. I found little pieces of paper all ripped up in the back of my Grandmother's top drawer of her old fashioned dresser. I took those little pieces of paper thinking I hit the jackbox. What ever was on that paper was a secret, I was going to put all the pieces of those little pieces of paper together and get to the bottom of what that was all about. I put them in my purse...... I could not wait to get home and decipher the secret little papers that I had found. It was my Detective side of me coming out. Well, what the heck........... They were gone....... I dumped out my purse, I emptied my pockets, I searched my car, I looked under the car, I could not for the life of me figure out where those little pieces of paper went. To this day......... I still wonder what was on those pieces of paper. Drives me crazy that I don't know! Serves me right I guess. Taught me a lesson. Some things are better left unknown and unsaid.......
My Grandmother gave me a little Red Tin heart with Chocolate candy in it the week before she died. I still have it. When I did get her china cabinet and we brought it to our house and unwrapped every piece of china that was wrapped in newspaper. I threatened everyone to don't drop it. It meant the world to my Grandmother and It was now going to mean the world to me. I'm pretty much Sentimental big time. Well, here we were in the kitchen unwrapping all the precious China when this little piece of paper came out of the china. It was all yellow and old looking. When I picked it up and looked at it. It said........... GRANDMA'S HOME.

It was a poem that went like this.

I Am thinking of a cottage
In a quiet rural dell,
And a brook that ran beside it
That I used to love so well.

I have sat for hours and listened
As it rippled at my feet
And I thought no other music
In the world was half so sweet

There are forms that flit before me,
There are tones I yet to recall,
But the gentle words of Grandma,
Still I prize the most of all.

In her loving arms she held me
And beneath her patient care
I was borne away to dreamland
In her dear old rocking chair

I am thinking of a promise
That I made when last we met
T was a rosy summer twilight
That I never shall forget

"Grandma's going home", She whispered,
And the hour is drawing nigh
Only say that you will meet me
In our Father's house on high.

She was looking down upon me
For a moment all was still
Then I answered with emotion
By the Grace of GOD I will
How She clasped be to her bosom,
And we bowed our heads in prayer
where we oft had knelt together
By her dear old rocking chair

She has passed the vale of shadows
She has crossed the narrow sea
And beyond the crystal river
She is waiting now for me.

But in fancy I behold her
Once again we Kneel in prayer
While my heart repeats it's promise
By her dear old rocking chair.

WHEN I read that little old yellowed piece of paper......... I knew right then and there, Grandma was going to be my Guardian Angel! I still feel it as I just wrote that, So it must be true.
I wish I knew who wrote it.

@ Kiki LaFleur-Wilson