Home Sweet Home

Daily Lesson:

I now know why so many say you need a vacation from a vacation. My house is tore up from the floor up.

We are home and the chore list is longer than Santa's wish list.

Holy hell! Where is room service and the daily bed turn down? I woke up and for a moment, I planned on mosing down to the lobby for Starbucks, only to remember that their was no hot coffee waiting or a fruit plate off the morning buffet but an ass load of laundry with my name on it. Although I have enough work to make Cinderella feel grateful - I am glad to be home.

Today I went to my Grandmother's and we had lobster tail and homemade oyster soup while we worked

on her Memoir. We had to put the "book" on the shelf for a while due to busy schedules but,

it is in full motion. We sit at her dining room table with a voice recorder on so, I can upload it to my computer and listen as I write her story. We had left off with my Grandpa (17 years old) returning from CC camp and how he had hitchhiked from Nevada all the way home. He had no where to stay one night and asked a police man to stay overnight in jail for shelter and a meal. The Police said not unless he committed a crime. So, what's a man to do. He threw a rock through a car window in the parking lot and within moments he was warm, sheltered and let out in the morning with a full belly. Not a bad idea.

Today we talked about her wedding day, July 24th 1940 and the beginning of their lives as

husband and wife. The sequence of events leading to her courthouse nuptials. The blue church dress she wore, the ring less ceremony and the one night honeymoon spent at her new in-laws. Not picturesque but, she said she never wanted some big over the top wedding anyway. Part of me believed her and part of me knew she would never admit it anyway.  They moved from Trenton, Florida to Orlando the next day in a little cottage house attached to Uncle Leonard's house on Primose Ave.

The made a mere $60 a month and their rent was $10 a month. The neighbors all shared one washer and one dryer. Which was more than a blessing, since she had never had electricity much less a machine that cleaned clothes.

My Grandma would wait almost 3 years and two babies later for her wedding ring she so desperately dreamed of. Later that 1/4 carat diamond purchased for $79 from the Navy base would be swapped by a cricked jeweler. My Grandmother explained in heart wrenching detail how the fiery diamond had been swapped for a dull, shine-less diamond. She claimed that was one of the few times in her life she has ever been heartbroken. Sure, it was just a diamond but she had waited so long for that diamond and she said,

"it had fire that would sparkle even in the moonlight."

Listening to her stories and memories of my beloved Grandfather melt my heart. I wish I could be a fraction of the person she is. This book, the book of her life - is already becoming a true love story although, not a perfect one - a dedicated one.

Stay Tuned.

Tasha