Poetic musings by me

An Ode To My Gramma

My grandmother had an aged soul. Her face always full with a smile and heart on her sleeve.

She helped me in ways I still discover, her wisdom manifesting in my daughters who've never even met her.

When she was milking Queenie, or kneading the bread, her strong hands always had time to stroke my hair, or gently touch my cheeks.

Her eyes bright and blue as the sea twinkling on a bright summers day. Her beautiful voice, singsonging through each chore as if it was her honor to do the work.

She could make up a song in the moment, often building a moral lesson into it, which for me, made her seem like the wisest woman who ever lived.

When she played her fiddle or accordion her toes, bound in old fashioned Mary Janes, would tap, keeping beat with a rock back onto the chunky heel with a "tock-tap-tock". While she played, her poodle mix would hop on his back feet bouncing and dancing to the beat, while he howled with delight.

Us kids would watch her gleefully, marveling at her musical prowess.

When she was with her sisters, one of my favorite times, they would all speak Finnish, and it was just like a quartet of happy instruments playing in harmony. I never knew what they talked about, I didn't understand, but i could feel the love they had together and the joy they felt in each other's presence.

My gramma's love is with me always. The hard life she lived left memories in my veins. But even more, her faith in humanity was as strong as her faith in the god she prayed to. I never experienced judgement from her. I don't think I ever heard a word against anyone come out of her mouth.

Gramma always knew the end of the story, and she never feared it. She was blessed with an amazing love in my grampa, who died 7 short years before I was born. But gramma's love for him- her adoration of him was always evident in the tales she told of their lives together.

She walked through so much hardship throughout her years, but she did it with the most amazing grace, whether in laughter or in tears

I love you, gramma.