My Gran has stood in the same spot waving goodbye to visitors for 40 years. It’s one of my oldest memories. I have a thousand versions of this. Leaning over the back of a car seat waving till She was totally out of sight. Or now, a wave, a double tap of the horn and a glance in my review mirror, wondering if this is the last time.
The neighbours have gone or changed, my parents have gone, yet still my 87 year old Gran defies change to become some strange datum in a desperately uncertain world.
The concrete slabs where she stands are slowly subsiding. She asks me if I can fix them. I always say yes but mean no. Her Alzheimer’s means this game keeps playing out. I can’t bring myself to remove this evidence of a family ritual as old as my life. I am in awe at the length of time she has lived, at what she has lived through. And that she has been there for me.
But I also feel that as I think this, I’m tempting fate. Reminding Death he has a door to knock and after he’s been… all I’ll have is this imprint.
Touching blog which sparks memories of my wonderful grandmother. We called her Babcia, Polish for Granny. A very bright and educated woman, and school headmistress, Antonina lost everything because of World War 2, and as a refugee took her son and daughter (my late mum) across Siberia, through the Middle East and settled at a British refugeee colony in Uganda until 1948. Thanks to her, my family came to Britain, and made it their home. Twelve years later I was born. My favourite (and only) girl cousin is named after her, just as I am named after my grand-mother’s husband, Lucjan Zaleski, who as a colonel in the Polish army was tortured to death by Stalin’s henchmen for allegedly spying for the British. I wish Babcia and my grand-dad (who I never knew) could have witnessed their grandson as Director of Communications, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, become the first British diplomat to address the Annual Conference of the Polish Diplomatic Service in 2008. Babcia would also have approved of The Open University, as she spent her time with us as children stressing the importance of learning, and applying oneself to study and getting things done properly. She truly left her mark.
Thanks for the comment Lucian. An amazing story. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the comment Lucian. An amazing story. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t agree with that..
http://top-univercity.com/
She truly left her mark.
Interesting thought, +100500
this
aw, beautiful. I used to wave to my grandad every time he left for
ever, til he never came to leave anymore. and now, when my daughter
visits me, when she leaves to go home on the london train, i either
cycle alongside on the platform till i can’t keep up or I walk alongside
the train as it’s pulling out then move to a gentle jog then give up
but still wave till i can no longer see the train. these waving sessions
stay within us for a lifetime