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| My Granny on her 89th Birthday |
My Granny went into hospital on Tuesday August 28th as a result of a heart attack related to pneumonia and suffered another massive heart attack about a week later.
The doctors warned the family then of the unlikelihood of a recovery. She at least recovered enough to go back to her own room at the nursing home on Sunday 23rd September but a reassessment on the following Tuesday saw her come off all but palliative medication. The palliative medication (a fancy term for morphine) kept her pain free but mostly asleep for the remainder of her time with us.
She died peacefully around lunch time today, in the presence of my Mum and Dad and my Aunt T. She was being visited by relations daily and as a family, especially those of us like me who were unable to visit, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to my Mum and Dad, Aunt B and Uncle C for their tireless efforts to ensure she was comfortable, understood what was happening to her and for making sure she was not alone.
You may remember that Legacy was the subject of my September 11 post. It was no coincidence that it was a short blog as I'd been told that night, that my Granny was likely to soon die and it was weighing heavily on my mind. Tonight I thought I would share with you a little of the legacy my Granny leaves me with.
Granny was English born, one of six children. She was just 16 when the Second World War began and she joined the WAAF at age 18. It was during her time in the English Air Force that she met a man who stole her heart, my Grandad, a gunner in the Australia Air Force. They were married in the September of 1945 on weekend leave.
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| The photo was hand-coloured by my Granny's new mother-in-law. |
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| My Dad at 18 months old. |
Her husband, my Grandad, died shortly before I was born, leaving her a widow for the remainder of her life.
So that's a brief history, but what will I remember?
I will remember the care with which she tended her garden at Goolwa. The thick healthy kikuya lawn, succulents, roses, herbaceous borders of lavender and rosemary buzzing with honeybees, hanging baskets full of flowers, camillias, pot plants, the old rain water tank kept in good stead by my Dad and Uncle C.
I will remember that as a child there were always biscuits and lollies on offer and laying on the coarse long hair of the white goat skin rug which lay in front of her radiant heater next to the orange leather ottoman with an embossed pattern on top. Her compulsion to make sure you never left empty-handed or unfed.
I will remember her stories. One particularly springs to mind. She once went to a small west country pub with a girlfriend of hers and they ordered pints of scrumpy, a particularly strong type of cider named for the act of 'scrumping', stealing apples. They sat and drank and had a merry old time not feeling the least bit affected.. until they went to leave. That was when they learned the hard way, that scrumpy gets you drunk from the feet up.
I will remember two times in particular that Granny was pleased as punch with me.
On a previous occasion when she'd been in hospital some years ago I visited and brought her a potted Cyclamen. It lived for years under her loving hand and she was thoroughly impressed with it. She made my cousin send me photos of it more than once.
The other was having her wedding photo (shown above), scanned, reprinted and framed for her so that Aunt L could have the original. I also made a framed copy for myself at the same time and it has sat in a prominent position in my kitchen for many years now.
I will remember her fondness for potato crisps and a gin and tonic.
I will remember that she was always proud of all of us.
I will remember that she lives on in our hearts and memories.
My Dad has often told us, he once asked her what it was she had wanted for her children in their lives. She paused for a moment and responded, "Well I hoped you might all be happy." A simple hope perhaps, but one that I try to live up to every day of my life.
Jess
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