Grandma Lu Is Going Through Her Mother's Memory Box

 It was a gorgeous spring day at Grandma B's mini farm. Marlee and and her grandma decided to have their morning "coffee" outside on the porch today. Marlee said, "Whatever happened to Grandma Lu after the party at Marleewood the other day? I haven't heard you say much about her lately." Grandma B shook her head and said, "Boy, that party about did my old friend in. How did a cat get into Marleewood, especially in the bathroom? Poor dear about sneezed herself to death. What happened to the book you two were writing? I don't think I ever saw it after all the commotion about the cat in the bathroom. I did talk to her the other day though. She has a big job ahead of her. She said she still has her mom's old pictures and papers to go through. She calls it her Mom's Memory Box. She loves going through those things, but said she needs to get it done and throw out old things that aren't good any more. She will probably call to see if I'm baking anything and want to come over for coffee." They both laughed and watched  the animals out on the field lazily grazing on the sweet green grass.

Grandma Lu was indeed going through her mother's things. She had tried to organize things like her mother used to do, but she just was not good at that. She was a bit haphazard in her ways. She might mix things up and put old and new pictures together, old papers from her home town's centennial newspapers mixed in with old scrapbooks and old letters.  "Why did she save all these old papers, I wonder?" She put her cold cup of coffee off to the side and went through the yellowed and brittle papers ever so carefully. She knew that if her mother saved the papers there were important articles in them. At least she hoped she wasn't wasting her time looking for what might end up being nothing in the end. She was getting so tired and her mind was full of memories of the days that followed her mother's fall and what happened in the days and weeks after. Oh what a time. As she rocked in her old rocking chair she could remember those times like it was yesterday. She had had to be responsible for her mother, her mother's home and for putting her mom in a nursing home which was the last thing she thought she would ever have to do. She smiled as she remembered her mother telling her years ago, "I don't ever want to live with you kids when I get old, put me in a nursing home."

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She had awakened the next morning with a heavy heart. She was so worried about her brother. He was never far from her thoughts. It was up to her to take care of things and do it she would. But first coffee and to see what mom had in the fridge. When she went to the kitchen she spotted the dratted Grandmother clock completely wrapped in bath towels sitting on the counter. "See what you get for keeping me awake? Okay you can go back on the mantle. I need coffee and you need to be quiet. Hopefully I can find out how to shut your beautiful chimes off while I'm here, you noisy thing."

 As she went back out to the kitchen she saw her mom's medicine bottles and looked at them. "Hmm, I remember you saying you put the pills on top of the bottles every morning so if you looked at them before you went to bed and if they were gone you were sure to know you had taken them. What's in the fridge? No V-8 juice or Ho Ho's for my little ones. Oh Mama, the memories you have given us. They still talk about the V-8 juice and Ho Ho's you always had waiting for them. Okay. I need to call the hospital and see how you are doing, then I need to make some decisions and make arrangements for you to be transferred to the nursing home where I work. I need to go to the hospital and get your purse so I can get all of your information and identification I need. I have to make sure your bills are paid before we leave and a million other things I'm sure I don't know about."

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Grandma Lu had fallen sound asleep in her rocking chair. Her mother's Grandmother clock now sitting on her piano along with her mother-in-law's silver condiment caddy and glass cruet set to keep it company. Her dreams were taking her to her childhood. She could just see her mother baking cinnamon rolls for the grocery store. She remembered the sweet smell of  cinnamon and vanilla as it met her at the door after a long day at school. She was ten years old. What she didn't know was that her mother was going to have a visit with her that day. The memory of that visit would remain with her throughout her life. Subject: allowance vs. baking dishes.