I have been thinking about my late paternal grandpa a lot with his birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. This is the first year I can't call him or send him a card. I do plan to call my grandma that day because I know how hard it will be for her. In any case, I was in my car on the way home from work and was thinking about him and wondering if he was okay up in Heaven. I asked him to send me a sign and figured it would be in the form of a Sinatra song. Then I thought that maybe "American Idol" could have a Sinatra theme, but dismissed the idea because they did rat pack music last year. Tonight, I was watching the results show and they announced that next week's theme (featuring Harry Connick Jr. as the guest mentor) is none other than....SINATRA! I actually got emotional when I heard this exciting piece of news.
Papa Morrie....think of this as an early birthday gift.
Showing posts with label grandparents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grandparents. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
My grandma has a doppelganger!!!
There was "doppelganger" week on Facebook recently, where we could post our celebrity look-alike. (Mine was Jennifer Grey, pre-face lift.) I thought about doppelgangers again tonight, when I was watching "Casablanca" and noticing how closely Ingrid Bergman resembles my paternal grandma when she was younger (which would have been around that same time). It's really uncanny and I couldn't stop thinking about it the entire time I watched the movie. I even told my neighbor about it (since he brought over the movie in the first place). Then I was telling him how my late paternal grandpa looked like Nicolas Cage when he was younger and my late maternal grandma looked like Madonna did at the beginning of "Evita" when she was younger. I just based this all off pictures I've seen of them.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Ain't that grand?!?
I've been thinking a lot about grandparents lately. My older son asks about how my parents and grandparents are related to him and is finally learning about what it means to be a great-grandparent. He sometimes asks about his great-grandfather (who recently passed away) and I usually trail the conversation back to his great-grandmothers instead. I haven't told him that my grandpa passed away because he doesn't understand much about death yet. I sometimes tell him that my maternal grandparents live with Hashem and then he doesn't ask anything more. I am glad that my sons have great-grandparents to remember at all. (Although they haven't seen one of their great-grandmas since my older son was 5 months old. :P) I only had one living great-grandmother when I was growing up. She lived until the summer I turned 18. I mostly remember her as really old and sick. I have a hard time imagining her as the spunky lady who told a bus driver that her dog was blind and she was his eyes. Or the lady who rode a canoe across a lake to visit her son at camp (from what my late great-uncle told me). I'm talking about my dad's grandma. I never met my mom's grandparents, as I was named for them.
I still think about my late maternal grandma a lot. I think of what she'd be like if she didn't have Alzheimer's (or a stroke) and lived a lot longer. I think she would have totally kvelled over my sons. She would have still made matzo ball soup and would have supported my newfound interest in knitting. She would still read books and sit kibbitzing with her lady friends at the pool. The last coherent thing I remember that she said to me was "good for you" when I told her about dating my (now) husband and how he was a nice Jewish boy. She was adorable and told all my friends to call her Mama Mollie. At her funeral, the Rabbi talked about how she was everyone's Mama Mollie. She was a balabusta and loved taking care of us and our friends. My sister and I would beg her to stay overnight at our house and we'd have countless sleepover parties at her condo (which is now my sister's condo). I got her to read V.C. Andrews books and we'd discuss them. When I was a kid, I'd play bingo with her and her lady friends. She taught me how to make matzo balls and now I'm a pro at making the matzo balls the way she used to. She also had strong Jewish roots and I am now trying to carry those on and raise my kids with those values. She loved going to shul with us. It was so important and meaningful to her. She was as much a part of our lives as our parents were. She practically raised us along with our mom. I could go on and on, but I think I summed up how special she was. I named my older son after her, as her Hebrew name was Esther.
I don't remember much about my late maternal grandpa. He died when I was 6 1/2. I know he would imitate Popeye to make me laugh when I was younger. He even had a corncob pipe. He was a gentle soul who loved my grandma very much. Despite the fact that I miss my grandma, I'm glad they are able to be together again. I know she missed him dearly in the 20+ years they were apart. My younger son's middle name is in his honor. I really need to ask my mom more about what he was like when she was growing up and even what he was like as a grandpa when I was too young to remember much.
Back to what started this thought process: My late paternal grandfather, Papa Morrie. I'm fortunate to have had him in my life for over 30 years. I'm also thrilled that he had the opportunity to meet and get to know his great-grandsons before he passed on. My dad had asked me for some memories to share at his funeral. The big ones that stood out were "Oldsmobile candy" (a.k.a. Ande's mints), him singing along with musicals and "Farmer Brown" stories. We called Ande's mints "Oldsmobile candy" because he worked for an Olds dealer and would give us those candies every time we visited him there. He'd also bring them to our house. "Farmer Brown" was some character he would tell stories about every time we got Brown's chicken. I don't even know what happened in the stories anymore, but we liked them. He was big into Sinatra and other Rat Pack music. He liked going to Vegas a lot. When I called, he was always excited to hear my voice, no matter how near or far I lived from him. Once I called him at the hospital when I was in college. That's the only real thing he remembered (he was quite delirious at the time). My sister and I would play Hi-Q (a peg jumping game) and try to trick him into thinking we won. He'd always be on to us and would make us show him how it was done. Like my maternal grandpa, Papa Morrie also adored his wife (my only living grandparent). He took care of her all the time. They were very sweet together, even when they were arguing. We called them "The Costanzas." And like my maternal grandma, he was always very nice to my friends. He was able to make friends wherever he went. That was just his nature. I have some funny stories from his later years, such as when he borrowed CDs from the library, thinking they were DVDs. Then he couldn't figure out why there was no picture coming up when he tried to play them on his DVD player. His answering machine outgoing message was funny too. He sounded like he was reading from a script while my grandma was nagging him in the background. I miss him a lot and am sad that I didn't get to say goodbye or even go to his funeral. However, I'm glad I got to see him earlier last summer, not knowing that time would be my last with him. He enjoyed seeing his great-grandsons too. They made him smile a lot. Like my dad said at the funeral (which I saw on DVD, oddly enough), he was always making sure his great-grandsons had toys to play with at his condo, just like he did when when my sister and I were little.
I'm glad I have memories to cherish and stories to pass along. I'm also glad that my kids have such wonderful grandparents in their lives, no matter how far away they live. They're always involved with our kids and love talking to them on the phone and spending time with them in person. Now that we have Skype, it has opened up a whole new line of communication between our kids and their grandparents. They really love their grandparents and talk about them all the time. It's so nice that they have such a connection and I hope our parents (both mine and my husband's) live a long time so that our kids can continue to have this connection and one day have their own stories to pass along to future great-grandchildren (whom our parents, B"H, will be able to meet someday).
I still think about my late maternal grandma a lot. I think of what she'd be like if she didn't have Alzheimer's (or a stroke) and lived a lot longer. I think she would have totally kvelled over my sons. She would have still made matzo ball soup and would have supported my newfound interest in knitting. She would still read books and sit kibbitzing with her lady friends at the pool. The last coherent thing I remember that she said to me was "good for you" when I told her about dating my (now) husband and how he was a nice Jewish boy. She was adorable and told all my friends to call her Mama Mollie. At her funeral, the Rabbi talked about how she was everyone's Mama Mollie. She was a balabusta and loved taking care of us and our friends. My sister and I would beg her to stay overnight at our house and we'd have countless sleepover parties at her condo (which is now my sister's condo). I got her to read V.C. Andrews books and we'd discuss them. When I was a kid, I'd play bingo with her and her lady friends. She taught me how to make matzo balls and now I'm a pro at making the matzo balls the way she used to. She also had strong Jewish roots and I am now trying to carry those on and raise my kids with those values. She loved going to shul with us. It was so important and meaningful to her. She was as much a part of our lives as our parents were. She practically raised us along with our mom. I could go on and on, but I think I summed up how special she was. I named my older son after her, as her Hebrew name was Esther.
I don't remember much about my late maternal grandpa. He died when I was 6 1/2. I know he would imitate Popeye to make me laugh when I was younger. He even had a corncob pipe. He was a gentle soul who loved my grandma very much. Despite the fact that I miss my grandma, I'm glad they are able to be together again. I know she missed him dearly in the 20+ years they were apart. My younger son's middle name is in his honor. I really need to ask my mom more about what he was like when she was growing up and even what he was like as a grandpa when I was too young to remember much.
Back to what started this thought process: My late paternal grandfather, Papa Morrie. I'm fortunate to have had him in my life for over 30 years. I'm also thrilled that he had the opportunity to meet and get to know his great-grandsons before he passed on. My dad had asked me for some memories to share at his funeral. The big ones that stood out were "Oldsmobile candy" (a.k.a. Ande's mints), him singing along with musicals and "Farmer Brown" stories. We called Ande's mints "Oldsmobile candy" because he worked for an Olds dealer and would give us those candies every time we visited him there. He'd also bring them to our house. "Farmer Brown" was some character he would tell stories about every time we got Brown's chicken. I don't even know what happened in the stories anymore, but we liked them. He was big into Sinatra and other Rat Pack music. He liked going to Vegas a lot. When I called, he was always excited to hear my voice, no matter how near or far I lived from him. Once I called him at the hospital when I was in college. That's the only real thing he remembered (he was quite delirious at the time). My sister and I would play Hi-Q (a peg jumping game) and try to trick him into thinking we won. He'd always be on to us and would make us show him how it was done. Like my maternal grandpa, Papa Morrie also adored his wife (my only living grandparent). He took care of her all the time. They were very sweet together, even when they were arguing. We called them "The Costanzas." And like my maternal grandma, he was always very nice to my friends. He was able to make friends wherever he went. That was just his nature. I have some funny stories from his later years, such as when he borrowed CDs from the library, thinking they were DVDs. Then he couldn't figure out why there was no picture coming up when he tried to play them on his DVD player. His answering machine outgoing message was funny too. He sounded like he was reading from a script while my grandma was nagging him in the background. I miss him a lot and am sad that I didn't get to say goodbye or even go to his funeral. However, I'm glad I got to see him earlier last summer, not knowing that time would be my last with him. He enjoyed seeing his great-grandsons too. They made him smile a lot. Like my dad said at the funeral (which I saw on DVD, oddly enough), he was always making sure his great-grandsons had toys to play with at his condo, just like he did when when my sister and I were little.
I'm glad I have memories to cherish and stories to pass along. I'm also glad that my kids have such wonderful grandparents in their lives, no matter how far away they live. They're always involved with our kids and love talking to them on the phone and spending time with them in person. Now that we have Skype, it has opened up a whole new line of communication between our kids and their grandparents. They really love their grandparents and talk about them all the time. It's so nice that they have such a connection and I hope our parents (both mine and my husband's) live a long time so that our kids can continue to have this connection and one day have their own stories to pass along to future great-grandchildren (whom our parents, B"H, will be able to meet someday).
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