A story of my Grandmama and a song
I’ve been thinking a lot about my Grandmama lately. Today is her birthday. She would have been 93.
She passed away suddenly in the spring of 2oO4, and it was really hard on my family, especially my mama, because in those last few years, the two of them had a rocky mother-daughter relationship. And they just wasted the time.
They didn’t always see eye to eye or treat each other the way they should, and my mama was holding onto things that she had a hard time letting go of.
I’ve been flooded with memories of her today. I was her first grand baby, and she thought the world of me. She was always around as I was growing up. She helped raise me.
I even lived with her at times in the early 80s because my mama was really sick and in and out of the hospital for a few years, having major surgeries and almost losing her life several times.
Then later she moved in with us, so throughout my life I spent a lot of time with her. Just memory after memory.
I remember once, I had a breakup with my girlfriend at the time, and she started dating this new guy. Well, he and two of his friends decided to show up at my house, and they were looking for a fight.
So, I walked out in the driveway and faced all three of them by myself.
Well, I thought I was by myself until I turned around and saw my Grandmama standing there in her house coat with a broom in her hand, ready to swing it. Then she says, “I GOT YOUR BACK SON!”
I couldn’t believe it.
I was like, “Grandmama, put that broom down and go in the house before you hurt yourself, I got this.” Haha.
But she didn’t. She stayed right there with me as I proceeded to whip all three of them. 😁😎
She loved for me to sit around and play my guitar and sing for her. She would make requests. Like “Take Me Home Country Roads” by John Denver and a few others.
She would clap her hands and tap her feet, and sing along. She was an old school country girl, and she had a strong Southern drawl. She sounded like Dolly Parton when she talked. 😁
She was a special lady to me. She was a Christian, but she wasn’t always.
The story I’m about to tell… you can decide on your own what to think or feel about it. I’m just going to tell you what I witnessed that day.
It was the day after she died. I was at my mama’s house. And my mama was in very bad shape inside. The guilt she was feeling was just too much for anyone to handle, and I had never seen her this way.
It was as if she died too.
She so wished that she had of done things differently. Instead of always arguing. She wished she would have said “I love you” to her mother because she did. But now she couldn’t.
Ever.
Now, suddenly, everything that was keeping her from this when her mother was alive meant absolutely nothing.
My mama cried and cried and cried non-stop.
She decided to go out and sit in her garden for a while and be alone.
She had been out there for maybe an hour. I was standing in the kitchen drinking coffee and looking out the window. I could see her off in the distance sitting on a little bench wearing her big-brimmed sunhat, surrounded by her flowers.
When suddenly, she jumps up and starts running toward the house.
I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I immediately think the worst. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her run. So I thought something was bad wrong.
As she approached the back door, I hurried to meet her as I could hear her crying out my name.
She bursts through the door out of breath and in tears. But not the kind I thought. These were tears of joy.
She’s trying to talk, but she can’t really, and I’m like, “What happened? Are you okay? What is going on?”
Then she cries out and says, “I JUST TALKED TO MY MAMA!!! I JUST TALKED TO MY MAMA!!!”
Then she says, “YOU CAN SMELL HER ALL OVER ME!!! SMELL ME!!! SMELL!!!”
Then I began to smell my Grandmama’s perfume, and her scent spread through and filled the entire kitchen.
It was one of those powerful moments in life that you dont forget.
Come to find out, she says that God allowed her to have this moment with her mother.
She says they spoke. That she heard her voice. They both apologized and said, “I love you.”
And she said my Grandmama told her, “Jackie baby, I know you love me.”
Then she said, “My Grandmama said, “It’s beautiful here.”
From that day on, my mama was okay. She put it all behind her and was able to find peace.
She got another chance.
She was able to say one last time, after the fact, what she couldn’t say in life.
And I think you know the moral of this one.
Happy Birthday Grandmama.
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