Bingo With Grandma

I went to visit my grandma at the beginning of this week, or Mammaw as I call her. She is the only grandparent I have left, and this is the first time that I’ve gone by myself to visit – usually I tag along with my Mom and Dad. Mammaw will be 87 years old next week and she is still kickin’ it. Mammaw lives in a one bedroom apartment, has never driven a day in her life, and the highlight of her week is playing Bingo on Monday nights at the Knights of Columbus hall. She takes cabs to the grocery store, to the doctor, and yes, to Bingo. She loves puzzles and Sudoku, Drew Carrey on the Price is Right, tennis, football, and I learned this week that she is a huge Seinfeld fan! Mammaw loved my iPhone and kept telling everyone they should check out this little thing that tells me how to get around everywhere. I’m amazed at how she knows so much about what is going on in the world!

I think a lot of people don’t appreciate what we can learn from our grannies. We are so focused on moving forward and keeping up with the times that we forget about what people have experienced in the past and how that is important. People who have lived 87 years have seen a lot, know and understand a lot about life, and have a lot to share with us. I learned many things from Mammaw this past week.

In this age where so many people think they deserve things to be given to them, it is important to work for everything we want. Mammaw grew up in an orphanage and was working by the age of 16. She never went to high school. Today we would call that cruel. But Mammaw just knew that she wanted something beyond those orphanage walls, and if she didn’t work for it no one was going to hand it to her. (She also never dealt with credit cards or debt or anything like that either – you want it? You sell something you don’t want for the money or you work to make it happen!)

In this age where the feminists look down on women who stay home with their kids, I learned the value of being a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom for those of you who don’t know the mommy acronyms!). Mammaw jokes about how she worked for 25 years with no pay, no days off, and no vacations! How true that is! What a wonderful, tough job to stay home and raise kids! I feel blessed that my mom was able to work at home with us, and I hope I will be able to offer that gift to our children one day.

In this age where we want to take the easy road in relationships and dealing with family, I learned the importance of working through hard times and sticking with a hard situation to aim for the bigger picture. Mammaw had 4 children at home, all under school. Today 4 kids is a HUGE family – and for them all to be so close in age!! Mammaw knew that she wanted to be there for those kids and wanted to see them all go to college, so she worked through everything else that came along to make that happen. (And they did all go to college!)

It is not always easy to pick up the phone and call your grandparent, or even an older aunt or uncle. Sometimes they have complaints about their health or the situation they are in. But they have so much to share with us, so much wisdom that we can learned from. And they need our love too. While we are running from one event to the next, one dinner party to the next meeting, we forget that there are people in this world who are lonely. Some of our grandparents don’t have much else except the families they seen grow up and change. Pick up the phone and offer some love, you might get some great wisdom in return.