Christmas 2013 Bus Ride

Many people have heard my stories about my grandma but for those of you who haven't heard them let me start by describing my grandma to you.  When people talk about grandma's in general, many have visions of sweet little old ladies who bake cookies and play bridge.  REALITY CHECK! My grandma is 4'8" tall, 80 lbs (sopping wet!) and swears like a sailor (with a British accent to boot!).  She is very old fashioned (when it comes to "those" people), she talks about body parts that no grandchild should every hear about and has not a G rated bone in her body!  We love her dearly!  

In the spring of 2013 she had one of her legs amputated just under the knee.  She spent many weeks in the hospital with me (aka "the cranky granddaughter", "the boss") visiting as much as possible which sometimes was not enough!  Although she did mellow out a little bit after they realized that she was a heavy smoker prior to being admitted (and put her on her "anti cranky patch" as she called it!), she was still a spitfire!  This life-changing event meant that she could no longer live on her own and thus began the process of moving into a nursing home.  When she did move into the home she was not impressed with the ratio of men (12) to women (85) but figured that she had a pretty good chance of meeting Mr. Right with her charm and wit!  I will save those stories for a later date!

The week before Christmas I went to the nursing home for a visit (to ease my guilt of not having been in a few weeks).  I was wearing my new winter scarf that I had fallen in love with.  It had 3 snowmen on it and when you pushed the button it sang and lit up to the beat of the music.  I showed my grandma how you squeezed the button and off it went!  OMG!  She laughed, the deep belly laugh that I have never heard before!  She laughed until the tears rolled down her cheeks!  What a glorious moment!  I apologized to the staff as I left that day, as I left the scarf in my grandma's hands!  One of the reasons for going was to explain to her that the following week I was going to borrow the bus from work and take her to see the Christmas lights.  She of course said she didn't want to go see the lights but changed her tune when I told her that my dad (her Teddy) was going to be there!  She wasn't sure if she would be "allowed" to go but I told her that wouldn't be a problem (the staff/residents would probably appreciate the break).

I phoned the home the day of to remind them of us coming and found out that my grandma was refusing to go.  I said that we will come and see what we can do!  When we arrived she was for sure in a tizzy but my mom and I convinced her to go!  As we came out of the nursing home and started towards the bus my grandma piped up, "What the hell is that?" and I replied that it was a wheelchair bus.  She looked at me and said, "Who the hell is going to drive that?"  I explained to her that I was going to drive it.  She looked at me like I had 2 heads and exclaimed, "God help me!"  After we loaded her onto the bus, off we went!  The whole gang had a great time!  When we dropped her off my mom said, "Isn't Tamara a good driver?" and she actually agreed! It was a great way to spend time with her (whether she liked it or not!).

 

Love this woman!

The Whole Fam Jam including grandparents and the Monday Night Daughter

What a wonderful way to kick off the holidays!