Two of my favorite matriarchs
My mother, age 96
and my Aunt Loma, age 86
They both (plus Jocile) joined us at Girls' Night
My Mother's Hand
Doll clothes from Santa . . .
My amazement that the fabric matched clothing of mine
Laying my head in her lap at church
Her hand stroking my hair
"Spit bath" on the way to church
Her hankie washing a bit of dried milk from my face
Standing at the bar
watching her hand on the wooden spoon, stirring the browning hamburger
Me, offering lengthy soliloquies about my day
My hair dampened
Scissors in her hand
I watch her stretch a length to her second knuckle
snip snip
With the shake of paper
she straightened the Sunday funnies in front of our faces
Square by square
she read of Dagwood and Dick Tracy
Suitcase opened
clothing washed
I watched her press the long white pleats
She spoke softly about where she was going
Hrick . . . hrick . . .hrick . . . .
her hand moving up and down
Silver sewing scissors
cutting through fabric
on a green surface
I watched, fascinated, as she angled cuts
around every black arrow shape
What memory do you have of the labor of her hands?
So many memories of her hands. . . making hotcakes and wheat bread. . . her helping me frame and tie a quilt of old T-shirts from high school.
ReplyDeleteAll the many crafty projects she helps us cousins work on, the one I remember most is the beads we made out of magazine pages and then strung for necklaces, I keep seeing them all over Pinterest these days so they must be the trendy craft right now- I guess Grandma was ahead of her time!