GRANDMOTHERS

My Grandmother Ollie quilted. In the winter, she sat in her rocking chair located by the blazing, wood stove. There, she cut out or stitched many quilt blocks. I also have fond memories of her and her quilting bee meeting in the one-room school house that my father attended. For warmth, there was a pot-bellied wood stove burning brightly through its window.

My Grandmother made me, as well as her other grandchildren, a beautiful quilt for my "hope chest."

Today, I completed six lap-quilts for my grandchildren. I started the project last year. My quilts are not as detailed as my grandmother's, but they contain just as much love.

I enjoyed making these personal gifts for my grandchildren. Tomorrow, I will enjoy their smiling faces.

Merry Christmas & Many Blessings, L.B.

WASHING DISHES

My daughter and her husband, both excellent chefs, invited me for Thanksgiving dinner. On my arrival, much to my delight, three of my grandchildren, ages 4-to-9, surrounded me as I sat on the couch. They talked non-stop. Each one had multiple tales to tell. I partook of their loving bounty.

As all three of my children know, I am not much in the cooking department. However, following the meal, I am great in the clean-up crew. In dish washing, I believe in a sink of hot, soapy water, another of rinse water and a dish towel. Today, my seven-year-old granddaughter, Azriela, pulled up a stool and helped me.

As we worked and talked together, I thought nostalgically of my childhood, the holidays and large family gatherings, with their accompanying meals and dirty dishes.

I fondly remember those times, standing around the kitchen sink, washing and drying the dishes with my Grandmother Ollie, my aunts and my mother. It was the time the women chatted and caught up on the family news.

Women commune together as they work in the kitchen, the quintessential hearth. There, they return to their primal essence, the giver of life and sustenance.

NIPPY

Southern landlady,
Nippy, spunky at 83,
With 55 lived on this North Carolina beach

Downstairs, she quietly holds vigil
Over the comings and goings of her tenants and the sea.

She rents two units,
Each a little bit of heaven,
With seaside decks and four blue rockers.

Widowed in the 1990s, Nippy has one living son,
Jim, "a lawyer," who has two sons.
Alex is a chief neurology resident at Boston University, and
Cliff is a Winston-Salem "lawyer."

With a gleam in her eye,
Nippy introduced Cliff's wife, GiGi,
A Wake Forest resident,
Internal medicine this one.
"She'll be chief resident next year," said Nippy.

Nippy had another son, Neil,
Who graduated college and
Died climbing rocks.

"At least he died doing something he loved," says Nippy.
"It's easier to accept that way,
Than if he had been killed by a drunk driver or an overdose."

Attending her last high school reunion,
Nippy said, "Everyone introduced themselves as lawyers, doctors, judges and such.
I wondered what on earth I was going to say when came my turn.
Then, it came to me," she laughed. "I said I was in resort rentals.