Last night my great grandma passed away at the age of 99 a few days before her 100th birthday. This almost came as a relief for us; her family. Her quality of life had greatly deteriorated. I still can't help but feel sad that someone with that much history has left us. The following are a few of my favourite stories and memories that I have of her.
Allowances
Back when Nana was still living with my Grandma and Grandpa she would occasionally give Blair and I two dollars each. We would get this money in little orange envelopes; two loonies each. I still remember the first day we got toonies instead of two loonies. She was very excited about the new coin, because now she would be able to give is one coin instead of two. I think this continued until she was moved into a retirement home.
On special occasions like birthdays or Christmas she would give me a ten dollar bill. However, this was no normal ten dollar bill, this bill had to be almost new and never used. She would ask the bank tellers to give her bills that had no folds in them, they had to be crisp and new. Every time I opened my birthday or Christmas card to see that bill she would tell me how special it was. She was not a happy camper when the bank didn't have any non-creased bills, and I'll be the first one to tell you that it just wasn't the same getting those ones in my cards. I always felt bad folding the ten dollars into my wallet; ruining such a perfect bill. I would keep it out of my wallet for as long as possible. I think it was Nana's way of telling me to save my money.
Crokinole
Often my brother and I would be challenged to a friendly match of Crokinole with Nana. I don't remember if I was any good or if I ever won, I also don't think it matters. What matters is how much fun we had with this simple game. Nana taught us the ins and outs of the game. For example: always make sure the disc is on the smoother side so it will slide easier on the board. Nana would use the Crokinole cue, while I would use my fingers as I never got the hang of the cue. I'm not sure, but I think Blair tended towards the cue as well. I still remember one match we had, Nana was first to go. She of course got the disc right in the middle. This meant that me or Blair (I'm not sure who) had the chance to knock her disc out from the middle. I think it was Blair who made the fateful shot. He put all his power into the cue and launched his disc across the board to the disc sitting happily in the middle. Blair's disc made contact then launched into the air and landed soundly in Nana's blouse. We shared some good laughs about that one.
The Chipmunk That Sat on the Basketball
Nana had a few stories that she would love telling us every time we visited her. This was one of them. Granted, this is not a very long story, but it was important enough for Nana that she'd tell us about it all the time.
One day when Nana was sitting in the back sunroom of my Grandma and Grandpa's house she spotted a chipmunk. She watched this chipmunk as it went about it's daily business. To Nana's surprise the chipmunk hopped up on a basketball in the backyard and sat on it perfectly balanced eating a nut. She was so amazed by this sight that the memory stuck with her for quite some time, and every time she was reminded of it she would have to tell someone.
The Horse and Buggy Crash
This was another one of Nana's stories that she would always tell every time she was reminded of it, and she was reminded quite often because it involves a hurt elbow.
I'm not entirely sure what year this took place in, but from what I can tell Nana was a teenager at the time. Her and her friends were on their way to (or maybe from) a party in a barn (maybe a hoedown type event?). Of course at this time cars were not very common so they were making the trip in a horse and buggy. Somehow the horse and buggy ended up in the ditch. I was always unclear as to how it happened, but to Nana that was not the point of the story. The story was always about the outcome. Apparently she hurt her elbow pretty bad. So bad in fact that 80 years after the crash she still complained about pain in her elbow. Whether that pain had anything to do with the crash didn't really matter, because every time she had some sort of pain in her elbow we got to hear the cool story about how she hurt her elbow way back when.
I'm sure there are other memories that I'm forgetting right now, but these are the ones that have always resonated in my mind and will always resonate. Unfortunately, I will not be home for the funeral, but I will be there in spirit.
Brandon
