Grandma

go ahead, make my day

My grandma is the toughest grandmother on the planet. Yes, that means she can take on any grandmother out there, kick some butt and still make it home on time for breakfast. What else would you expect from a tobacco-smoking, profanity-spewing old bird? Despite never having gone to school, this tough cookie is well stocked on wit, humour and sarcasm!

Growing up in Grandma's house was quite an experience. As a strict disciplinarian who took no shit from us youngsters, she wielded the cane like a samurai, his katana. Whenever we got out of line, we got it bad. If she had kept up her tyranny till today, chances are Social Services would haul her in for child abuse. Once, as a strapping young lad, my uncle threw caution to the wind and went fishing in a disused mining pond. Despite being warned by his mother of the dangers of fishing in a mining pond, the young man found the lure of a big catch too tempting to refuse. Unfortunately for him, she found him out. So when the boy returned, she grabbed him by his hair kicking and screaming and dragged his sorry ass into the bathroom. There she scooped up buckets of water and splashed it up his face making sure it went up his nose - stopping only after she was convinced that he learnt what it felt like to drown! Hahahhahah!!!!

And while we all love Grandma, we always had the impressions that she was tough as nails - cold and unfeeling.

Then 13 years ago, Grandpa passed on. That day, she cried and cried for the husband who was betrothed to her in her teens. We had never seen her like that - choked up with emotion. It was the first time I saw her cry. And she cried for months and months after his demise.

For all the years they had been married, they had never quarreled. He brought home the bacon and fed the whole family while she faithfully managed the household and the kids. And when the kids grew up and he retired, she tended to him till the day he died. It was almost automatic, almost unfeeling. And yet under all that tough exterior was a woman who had grown to love her husband so much that she could not bear to live without him.

As I was growing up, I grew to despise the notion that any good can come out of love or marriage. It was my tough-cookie grandmother who rekindled my faith.