Grandma Blain

Today marks the exact middle of September--the 15th. It's been dark, cool, and rainy now for 4 or 5 days. Shouldn't we still be having some nice sunny days? Technically, it's still summer! I'm getting tired of the gloom, though. It makes me feel down and lazy.

I was thinking about my Grandma Blain the other day. She used to keep 5-year diaries. You know, 5-year diaries only leave you maybe 5 lines to write on per day. I think maybe I could handle that. A couple years after she passed away, I borrowed her diaries from my Mom and read them. Oh, was she ever faithful when it came to writing in those diaries. Every evening she would sit in her chair and take up her diary and watch the 6:00 news. It wasn't because she wanted to record the "headline news" for that day. No, she needed to record the weather. The high and low temperatures for the day, to be exact, along with other pertinent information such as if it rained or the snowfall amount for the day. If she happened to be away from home, she would always fuss, "Oh, I hope Daddy remembered to check the weather for me." It's kind of funny when you think about it.

But there were always a few more lines to fill in after the high and low were recorded for the day, and in those lines I found wonderful things. Things that I didn't know about my Grandma and some things that I now treasure. I didn't know how much my grandma suffered. She had rheumatoid arthritis. She had major blood circulation problems and migraine headaches. And she was lonely.

She recorded when my Grandpa started planting peas and how high the corn was getting and when the tomatoes were starting to ripen. About cutting hay in a rush to get it in before it rained and which cow had a new calf. She had them all named.

And then there were also the entries like "Margie and Sherwin and the girls came for a visit today." "McBrides came for the day and got snowed in tonight." And then later on, "Nancy and John came for a visit." "We got a Valentine's Day card today from Nancy and John and the boys." "Nancy called today, and Jake sang a song over the phone." And many more.

She noted the birth of each of my children she was alive to see and once wrote "Margie called today. Jake is a genius." Referring to his IQ test scores when he started school.

I didn't realize at the time how lonely and isolated my Grandma felt living out on the farm, just her and Grandpa. And I didn't realize until reading those diaries how much those little visits, cards, and phone calls meant to her. And I'm so grateful for that. I don't remember much about those short visits or those calls made when I was a busy young mother. But it makes me happy to know that they meant so much to her and hopefully eased her loneliness a bit. I miss my Grandma and wonder sometimes what she would think or say about life in these times. I like to think about her looking down at all of us, watching over her family.