Elegant

Elegance

18 January 2012

She had the most down-to-earth air of well-deserved arrogance. That is what my friend said about my grandmother. Spot-on correct, he was.

Of course she would have flipped her wrist and pursed her lips at such a comment, as if to say ‘oh bosh’ I have nothing of the sort. She was not arrogant in the nasty sense of the word. It is just, well…she knew who she was, firmly and with conviction. The difference between right and wrong was as simple to her as snapping peas.

She knew what she was on this earth to do, and she did not mind telling you if you had just acted a fool, albeit fool is a word she did not utter, and she did not allow us to say it either. She said it was a sin to call someone a fool.

I used to tell her she was a saint. Quickly she would retort, “A saint I ain’t,” knowing full-well she would not allow us to say ‘ain’t’ lest we planted it in a clever euphemism.

But my grandmother was a saint to all who knew her. Gone more than 15 years or so now, we all hear her words still. Her wisdom resonates in our lives. We sit up straight when we remember to b/c now we have to remember it all by ourselves without being told. She is a treasure to have and to hold in our hearts for ever, my grandmother.

PPM