My Grammie was Wonder Woman

Super heroes in comics, movies and on tv do amazing things for the good of society. They have cool powers like strength to stop a racing freight train, the ability to fly like a plane or even to shoot spider webs out of their wrists. Well, as you know the only thing that would fly out of my Grammie’s wrist were Kleenex. She always had one if you needed it. But if you ask anyone who ever darkened the doorway to one of my grandmother’s classrooms or libraries you would know she did have a super power. She could actually emit an atomic energy of epic proportions through her pointer finger. It began with what we might call a finger snap, but she was really conjuring up a subatomic life whip and when it hit you, you felt it in your heart. You straightened up. She never had to snap twice. Some of you are shuttering about it right now.

When looking back at all the lessons she taught me however, Grammie didn’t need to use her subatomic snap lasso of truth, she simply directed you in the way you should go, by leading life by example.

One-day Grammie said I could have milk and cookies. As I walked to the kitchen she said “be careful pouring the milk” …. Well you know what happened next, I spilled the milk. I spilled the milk all over her kitchen carpet. CARPET in the kitchen, I am so glad that trend is over, but anyway… I thought for sure she would be so upset with me that I frantically tried to clean the milk myself. On my hands and knees in the kitchen, a dozen paper towels laid out I froze when I saw her feet just a few paces away. I looked up and prepared for the “I told you to be careful” speech but Grammie didn’t say a word, she simply crouched down next to me and helped me clean it up. She taught me that when you see a need you don’t ask if they need help, you just figure out a way and help.

One summer, when I was probably only about 10 or so, I went to Pennsylvania to visit some family. They were all registered for a race that weekend (my aunt a marathon, the girls a 2 miler) and they wanted me to enter, too. I said I had never run before, but I would. It was a straight out and back run almost all uphill for the first half. As I rounded the cone at the turn around I could see how far I had come, but I could also see that there was no one behind me. I was in last place and I had half the run remaining. When it was time for the awards to be given out I listened to the voice over the loud speaker said, “in third place in the under 11 age division, Carrie Grey”. What? Yes, I got 3rd in my age group even though I came in dead last. When I returned to Dover, I told Grammie about it and she asked to see my trophy. I told her it was silly because I didn’t deserve it. Not everyone deserves a trophy. Grammie took that trophy and put it on a shelf in her front room where it sat for the next 20 years or so. She said, “of the whole world, there were only 3 people in your age group willing to run that race and you were one of them”. She taught me it didn’t matter if I was first or last, I chose to start.... and I chose to finish and that’s what matters most.

Ok, last one for now…

When I was maybe 7 or 8, old enough to read but still small enough to fit into the little rocking chair in Grammie’s front room, you know, the one where Mini Santa sits during the holidays? Well, I sat in that rocking chair reading Grammie’s Bible. The black one with the red tinted edges. Anyway, she asked what I was reading. I told her I had read Pee-Salms and was now looking at Pro-verbs, which is fitting because I now fully realize my grandmother was the epitome of a Proverbs 31 woman. But, I digress, as she looked over my shoulder I told her I had no idea how someone could read the whole thing. The print in her Bible was so tiny, there were so many pages and there were NO pictures! I figured she would say what most people would say, “start at the beginning’, but she didn’t. Grammie said, “start at Matthew”. And that was the best lesson she ever taught.

None of us will ever leap a tall building in a single bound, change the course of a mighty river or bend steel in our bare hands. Seldom is any one person put in a position to save the world or to singlehandedly alter the destiny of Humanity. But we can always pay the store back for the tootsie rolls we stole, help others clean spilled milk, sit next to the injured girl on the bus, choose not to get back on a train that we know would take us to the wrong place, stand our ground when it’s easier to walk away and to always do unto others as we want them to do unto us.

So, as we use the time we have today to say our farewells to our Grammie, let’s think of her as the real-life Wonder Woman she was. She may not have had a lasso, but she was the epitome of strength, grace, beauty and truth. She played half-court basketball in a near floor length skirt, worked diligently on her work in and out of the house, and she could change the trajectory of your life with a single snap. But of all the memories you have and all the lessons she taught, none is greater than, “Begin at Matthew”. Thank you.