Threads of Strength
My grandmother isn’t your typical grandmother. My visits with her weren’t filled with home baked goodies and stories from the “old days”. She was busy, always, with something, and I didn’t realize that I was in the presence of a strong woman. I didn’t know that in her imperfect way, she was paving pathways for her family, and women in general. She made her career in a male dominated environment, fighting for the simplest things such as wearing pants and the complex things like authority and power. Looking back now, I see the wear and toll that the stress took on her, afterall, the body keeps score. The women before us were not without consequence. Sometimes, I forget this, foolishly.
When I was in elementary school, she allowed the sun to set on her professional chapter. She sold her house, moved into a motorhome, and lived in a campground by a lake. Again, I was unaware of her strength and genius with this move. Now, as I dream of camping by lakes, mountains, and deserts, I can't help but wonder if some of my own desire to “escape it all” has deeper roots. When time began to cast more shadows, she moved closer to her mother to take on a caregiving role. More feats of strength. It was about this time that she began to pick up some “grandma hobbies”. I think more out of bemusement than anything. She cross stitched here and there, worked in the flower beds, made pickles (which really just turned out to be regular store bought pickles with more sugar added to them-delicious by the way), and took up quilting.
I think these projects came from the desire to stay busy in body and mind, another deep root that has grown prolifically in my own life. She is still one of the strongest women I know. Strong and complex women have been the thread that has connected and formed my family. These women, and so many alike, pass on parts of themselves. They pass them on in nose shape, hair texture, pickle recipes, hand waves, stories of rocking chairs and owls, and in the things they create and love. Every cross stitch and too sweet pickle, comes with a life of strength, stress, joy, peace, and love. We love these things because we love these people.
