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Introducing the Granny I Knew

I hate the fact that my brother and my cousin never got a chance to know Granny when she was fun. See, Granny had the stroke when my brother was 10 months old, and by the time my cousin came to live with us, she had already been down for about 10 years. They never knew how much fun our grandmother was. They didn't get a chance to hang out in the kitchen and cook with her like I did. Neither one of them ever got the chance to wear a hand-sewn outfit from her. They never even saw her dance.

When I was little, Granny and I went everywhere on foot. (She never learned to drive.) We would walk out the shopping center to pay bills and pick up knick-knacks and stuff. We'd go to church every Sunday morning, and watch wrestling every Sunday evening. Most times we'd watch at home, but sometimes we'd go down to Ms. Rowe's house and watch with her. That was always an adventure because Ms. Rowe would get rowdy when she watched those men fight on TV.

Of course, Granny had what I thought was her mean side. She wouldn't let me get away with anything, and for the longest time, I thought she had eyes in the back of her head. After fussing at me for something stupid I did, she turned around and walked away. When I thought her back was turned to me, I stuck my tongue out. She spun around and was like, "Do it again if you want to." Naturally, good sense prevailed and I didn't want to. LOL

In hindsight, I know that she was just trying to make me a better person. I'll never forget her words -- "I love you, but I spank you so others will love you, too." At the time, I thought it was the cruelest thing in the world, but I'm so glad she did.

I'm finally moving into a place where I'm able to be celebratory about Granny's life. Even though I still think she reneged on our deal to live forever, I'm beginning to see that it's okay. My friend, Angela, said something to me that made so much sense. She said that even though we wanted her here, it wasn't that much fun for her. I agree. All of her friends are either dead or way too old or sick to be any fun. And her body was just tired. At the end of the day, she lived as long as she possibly could.

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