Scathingly briliant.

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YEP, I got WAY behind on these… Sorry!

Dear Grandma Holloway:

Thank you for all the great summers you let me stay at your home. Being the youngest of 5 kids, I was often overlooked, so spending an entire month each summer without them was great. It meant I got all of the attention.

These are the things that I remember the most about you:

- Your food was the best food ever, and anytime you were cooking, you were smoking a cigarette. It seems like you never flipped your ashes. There would be this long bunch of ashes on the end of your cigarette sort of hovering over whatever you were cooking. I watched with intensity just knowing those ashes would drop into the food but they never did. They never fell until you bent over the trash can. I thought you were magic.

- You had a salt & pepper shaker collection that filled your entire pantry. You kept your food in the cabinets because the pantry was full of those shakers in all shapes and sizes… they looked more like figurines. I used to move them all around because I was scared I would miss seeing one of them hidden behind others. Last month I was in a flea market and saw a basset-hound salt and pepper shaker set. So begins my collection.

- There was one spot in the pantry that was not covered by a salt/pepper shaker. It was covered by a glass bowl, instead, that was filled with quarters. Every day you let me get a handful of quarters and go to the little store down the street and get candy.

- You were always smiling. Every time I glanced at you, you were looking at me smiling.

- You and Grandpa lived in the projects, but back then, the projects were not all that bad. Especially your apartment. You had such a nice tiny little yard, you were always out there gardening, wearing a house-dress.

I stopped spending my summers with you when I became interested in boys. In fact, I was with a boy when my sister told me you were dead. I was 15 and in our back yard with my boyfriend when I heard some loud crying in the house. Julie came out the back door and said “Come inside. Grandma’s dead.” You were 62 and died of heart disease.

Years later, Julie (she knew more than me because she’s 7 years older) told me that you were always happy to have me there because it meant a month straight that Grandpa would leave you alone. She said that he abused you, all the time. I was so shocked to learn that, because I had never even heard him raise his voice, and he was always nice to me. In fact, years later, the last words he ever spoke were to me. In fact, Grandma, the day your husband died, my first daughter was born. It’s a good thing Julie didn’t tell me how Grandpa treated you until after he was dead, because otherwise I may have hated him and never spoken to him again.

Anyway, I’m sorry you had such a hard life. Thank you for making mine better.

I miss you much,
Melody Starr