Golly Moses

Well, a lot has happened since my last post.

My great-grandmother is in a rehabilitation center. I think by now I've mentioned it to most of you loyal readers (all five of you!) But Nanny had a stroke last week. My grandad found her unable to talk, unable to write, to communicate at all.

We've been visiting her a lot. She's improved. She can murmur "I love you. God bless..." and she can repeat almost anything you say. My mommy made a scrapbook for her with pictures of all our family. She can read the names, but when she comes to words like 'on' or 'at' or 'the' she gets stuck. She keeps randomly counting. "One, two, three, four, five..." My grandma bought her a teddy bear and a donut on Valentine's Day.

I know strokes are serious, and it's sad to see her so helpless, but honestly, I think I might be glad this happened. It sounds horrible. But if nothing had changed, she would have lived the rest of her life alone and bitter in her cold and empty house. Now, she is surrounded by people who love her.

We've always loved her. Of course we have. But she never received it well. My mother quit buying her real presents because she would always find something wrong with it and return it. It was a chore to visit her, but it was our duty. We would stay for a half hour, no more, and listen to her pessimism.

Her doctor said the stroke took the meanness out of her.

She kept stroking the purple pajamas my grandma bought for her and muttering 'whoowee!" She keeps giving everyone hugs, over and over and over, and telling us she loves us. She smiled when my grandma caught her sneaking dessert before she'd eaten her beans. I've never seen her smile like that before. She's like a child in so many ways. She poured over the scrapbook my mama gave her, read it twice. She was waiting for me by the front door when I came yesterday. Some days I hardly recognize her, she's so pleasant.

I don't know how much she will recover. I don't know if she'll be able to live on her own. I don't know if she will turn bitter again. I hope that part is never recovered. But if it is, at least she was able to show my grandma for once that she appreciates all she does. At least my mom will have given her one gift she truly loved. At least we will have legitimately enjoyed her company for a little while. At least we will have these memories of her.

It's not ideal. But I'm thankful God let us meet this side of her.