What's Up With Grandma?

Uncle Bubba has been taking care of his ailing mother with the loving, empathetic partnership of Sweet Pea. They make sure that her needs are met with care and concern. One void in her life that they cannot fill is her social life. Fortunately, it's often that Mama Bubba has guests stop by the house for short visits, to check on her and perhaps brighten her day. She holds court and small talk is made of the weather, of children and grandchildren, of the goings on at church, and so on. The exchanges are cordial though Mama is lost on current events and is often forgetful. These visits are obviously the result of how she lived her life in regard to taking an interest in the lives of others.

Just the other day, Bubbie ran into a woman that owns a small gift shop who knows Mama and has for years. She expounded glowingly on just how sweet and genteel Mama is and how fondly she thinks of her. "She's in the top echelon of people I know and I pray for her daily. Please give her my love."

This is typical of the encounters that Bubbie has in regard to his mama. However, he has a sister that cannot for the life of her figure out why people think that their mama is all that. She has a strained relationship with mama as perhaps most children do with their parents and even justifiably so. This is not written to judge Bubbie's sister but to point out that family and friends are often two different relationships. His sister will assert, "I can't figure out why on earth anyone would want to sit around with an old woman and talk about nothing? I just don't get it."

Well, Uncle Bubba has a lot of friends and many of them are older, senior people. He enjoys their company for many reasons, or he wouldn't take the time to bother with them; he wouldn't take the time. In Bubbie's view, senior people have so much to offer because of their life experiences. They talk with sincerity without competition or one-upsmanship. They offer advice to be taken or not. Bubbie doesn't always agree with the advice of his senior friends; however he takes it into consideration and objectifies it from their point of view to opinionate if it's valid and usable. And all of this is knowledge is easier acquired when it comes from someone that is not a parent, someone whom does not have any authority in your life. As Bubbie says, "I don't have to keep making mistakes to learn from them, I can just as easily learn from the mistakes of others... and it's less painful." These friends of Bubbie's are the patches that make up the quilt of his life. They bring richness and color to a, sometimes, drab existence. The other thing in Bubbie's view is compassion. He knows that by God's Word we are supposed to honor our elders, and that one day he will be the senior, housebound codger whiling away the endless hours hoping for a cheerful knock at his door. That's what's up with grandma.