Professor Sharon

Gramma Donlon – around 1961

I posted recently about one grandmother; here’s the other – my father’s mother.  We shared a birthday date, and I realized recently that on several occasions a gift was given that the two of us would share.  This, I think, was one of a few board games I remember playing with her.  She and I particularly enjoyed Chinese checkers (Here’s a blog that seems a fairly accurate compilation of what this game is, in case you don’t know!).

She was an interesting woman.  Very tall, thick glasses, and what seemed, at times to a little girl, a bit harsh.  She wanted, as mothers are wont, the best for her children.  She had two sons and a daughter.  In retrospect, I believe she is the person who taught me a lot about manners and courtesy.

I learned as an adult that her daughter was jilted at the altar – I don’t really know if that’s true; although one photo exists of her standing with a soldier gentleman.  My aunt lived with gramma until she was moved to a nursing home at her life’s end.  She then helped my father raise my two brothers when my mother choose to live a different lifestyle.

One of her sons, my father, married a woman she didn’t care for at all.  And, she left us all know it — but even so, she welcomed our visits and we slept there several times when our parents were having rough times.  She only lived about two blocks from us.

We always thought her Irish, but there is some proof that she was, in fact, English; but that’s another many hours of research for me to pursue, and I hope to complete it one day.

Last night I played “Go, Fish” with my own granddaughter.  Most of us who are grandparents remark frequently about the quick passage of time.  This little child who was feeling the effects of a bad cold was delighted to sit and play this game for nearly an hour.  As I followed her lead and enjoyed her smiles and laughter when she beat me (and I didn’t let her), looked outside at the falling snow, and remembered my own little girlness…..that’s what is life, isn’t it?