Granny. I couldn't possibly make it through the encyclopedia of me without an entry for Granny. To me and so many who knew her, she was Granny. Her mother didn't name here that, no her name was Iris. The older I get, the more amazed I am by the woman she was and all that she did. At 60, she did more in a day than I can do in a week. She owned her own business, a beauty shop. That's just what it was called, Iris' Beauty Shop. It wasn't a salon or a parlor. It was a typical beauty shop where ladies with their hair in rollers sat under dryers looking at magazines and talking loudly because they couldn't hear over the noise of the dryer. After raising her own two children, two difficult children, she raised her two grandchildren. My mother was addicted to drugs most of her adult life. Only now as a mother myself, do I realize what that must have been like for her. To live that many years with the heartache and pain and worry for her child. With all the difficulties she had to face in her life, she could very well have been angry or at the very least depressed. Those are the last two words you would ever use to describe her. She was the most full of love and life person I've ever known, a bubbly ball of energy who spread joy everywhere she went. As a teenager I was often embarrassed by her, and that saddens me now. The things that embarrassed me then, now fill my heart and bring tears to my eyes. Most of her clothes had holes, because she wouldn't buy anything for herself. The few clothes she had, she made for herself. She was at times loud and outspoken, not afraid to stand up for what she believed. She loved to laugh and she spent her whole life doing for others. She was an angel.
That's the beauty shop back there in the background. We're going to church here, I'm sure.
I'm sure I've said it here before, but I know that any good quality that exists in me, is there because of my Granny. I miss her so. I know there will never be anyone who will love me like she did, that special love between a grandmother and granddaughter. I'm so blessed to have had her in my life.
