(My nana, scoping out the purse racks at the mall)
Yesterday I took my nana, 92, out on the town because she needed to go on a “quick run to the store.” I left at 11 a.m. and returned at 3 p.m. I’m not complaining, we had a good time, as always.
At lunch, I told her about a dream I had recently about my dad. She told me about when her own parents passed away. She was in her mid-thirties and her mom had a sudden heart attack at age 67. She said my great-grandfather was crushed because he was so in love with her and couldn’t imagine life without her. He told his kids that since she died, he would hear my great-grandmother calling out to him “te quiero…te quiero…” (“I want you”) and how she was waiting for him.
Nana said three months later, her father was driving in downtown Mesa and was hit by a drunk driver – a man in Shamrock truck that he saw everyday at the same intersection at the same time. My great-grandfather made it to the hospital and relayed every last detail about the man to help with the arrest. Sixteen hours later, my great-grandfather passed away at 68-years-old from a head wound. He was reunited with my great-grandmother.
Nana said many years after, she would be sitting by her living room window and she would look up and see her parents walking down the carport, all dressed up, as if they were going out for the night.
She also told me about my Nana Cano. After my parents were married, both my nanas got to know each other. Nana told me about my Nana Cano’s love of sewing. Nana told me that my Nana Cano would always offer to sew anything she needed. My nana said she declined because my Nana Cano would never charge for her time and would say “My sewing machine is my life! I love to sew, it makes me happy, please give me things to sew!” Nana told me that my Nana Cano told her that having ten kids to raise, her time on the sewing machine was her little escape. I don’t have ten kids, but I can certainly relate!
We finished up our lunch and went shopping at Sears. My nana LOVES to shop for new purses and blouses. She always wants to look her spiffiest. She picked up a lavender blouse and told me, “This color is really in right now, all the young girls are wearing it.”
Here is where I get stressed with Nana – leaving the stores. I tell her to PLEASE wait inside by the door until I bring the car up to the curb and help her in. She is 92 and uses a walker! I don’t want her walking across the parking lot when she doesn’t have to. So I sprintwalk to my car and before I can even pull out of the parking space, I catch a glimpse of her in the rear view mirror walking onto the parking lot to meet me. And she’s smiling and waving. All I can think about is her getting hurt!
After the mall, she wanted to return a case of Ensure at the grocery store. But not just any grocery store, the one by her house because, she said, “they know me there.” However, she kept giving me wrong directions and we drove in three different directions (30 minutes and uncountable amounts of U-turns) until we finally found it – two minutes from her house! Now I’m chuckling, but while it was happening I could feel my temples throbbing! Nana is always used to her retirement resort shuttle driving her around, so she must have lost her sense of direction. Bottom line? We got there.
On our way out of the store, she pointed at some senior citizens sitting by the doors and told me “Those are people that live at the resort too. They are waiting for the shuttle to pick them up and take them back. But I don’t need the shuttle because I have you, mijita.” Then she yelled “HI!!!” at them, and they didn’t hear her. She flicked her hand and told me “Eh, nevermind, they’re old. They can’t hear a thing. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Oh. And it was 110 degrees outside! I worried about her fragile body being out in such crazy heat. I told her next time we need to leave earlier in the morning. She waved her hand at me and said “I can take it. I need a little sun, a little wind, a little rain…it makes me feel alive!”
Here is the takeaway: Next time I’m feeling lazy or frumpy, I’m going to think of Nana and her ability to offer a juicy round of storytelling, plus power shopping, grocery shopping and getting lost – and still having a positive attitude!
Very lovely post. That is the true beauty of life taking it easy and not worrying so much.
Oh your Nana sounds like a real hoot! I love it! She’s sassy, she’ll be around a long time. Mine was 101 when she passed away, I miss her.
I’m just browsing through your wonderful posts and came across your grandma stories. She sounds so much like my sweet gramma was. Once she made me climb a fire escape to ask a dentist to come down to the car to examine her. After she died, she came to me in a dream to tell me that I could have her house. I drove by one day, and it was for sell. We got a great deal, so now I live in her casita. I feel her every day.