Grandma's Hands

[Teresa]

When I read this, I related to it as my Grandma Workman and I had a similar conversation many years ago. I picked up her hands and was looking at them and she kinda said some of the same thing in a smaller version. She also commented that they were ugly.. which I responded by bringing them up to my face and kissing them and telling her that they were not. That I loved her hands and I loved her.
When I give my mama and daddy massages I notice their hands when I am working on them and I really get emotional inside. Those hands have been through everything for me... and as they and their hands age.. so does my love for them grow stronger. ( if that is possible)

So when my hands are hurt and sore or when I stroke the face of my family, children and granchildren I think of my grandma...and my mama and my daddy.
I will never look at my hands the same again.

Teresa


Grandma, some ninety plus years, sat feebly on the patio bench.
She didn't move, just sat with her head down staring at her hands.
When I sat down beside her she didn't acknowledge my presence and the longer I sat I wondered if she was OK.
Finally, not really wanting to disturb her but wanting to check on her at the same time, I asked her if she was OK.
She raised her head and looked at me and smiled.
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking," she said in a clear strong voice.
"I didn't mean to disturb you, grandma, but you were just sitting here staring at your hands and I wanted to make sure you were OK," I explained to her.

"Have you ever looked at your hands," she asked.
"I mean really looked at your hands?"

I slowly opened my hands and stared down at them. I turned them over, palms up and then palms down.
No, I guess I had never really looked at my hands as I tried to figure out the point she was making.


Grandma smiled and related this story:
"Stop and think for a moment about the hands you have, how they have served you well throughout your years.
These hands, though wrinkled, shriveled and weak have been the tools I have used all my life to reach out and grab and embrace life.


"They braced and caught my fall when as a toddler I crashed upon the floor.
They put food in my mouth and clothes on my back.
As a child my mother taught me to fold them in prayer.
They tied my shoes and pulled on my boots.
They held my husband and wiped my tears when he went off to war.

"They have been dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent.
They were uneasy and clumsy when I tried to hold my newborn son.
Decorated with my wedding band they showed the world that I was
married and loved someone special.

They wrote my letters to him and trembled and shook when I buried my parents and spouse.

"They have held and rocked my children and grandchildren, consoled neighbors,
and shook in fists of anger when I didn't understand.

"They have covered my face, combed my hair, and washed and cleansed the rest of my body.
They have been sticky and wet, bent and broken, dried and raw.
And to this day when not much of anything else of me works real well these hands hold me up, lay me down, and again continue to fold in prayer.

"These hands are the mark of where I've been and the ruggedness of life.
But more importantly it will be these hands that God will reach out and take when he leads me home.
And with my hands He will lift me to His side and there I will use these hands to touch the face of Christ."

I remember when God reached out and took my grandma's hands and led her home
I know she has been stroked and caressed and held by the hands of God.

[Jo McDonald]

When I read the writing "Grandma's Hands"  it also made me think of your Grandma - my Mama.
Her hands were the "cure" for any thing that went wrong for me.  Two weeks before she went Home to Heaven, she took my hands in hers, kissed them and said, "Oh Jodi, I just wish there was words enough to tell you how very very much I love you".  We sat there in her room at Twilight Manor and held hands and watched the ball game on her TV.
How I miss her and her wonderful sense of love for all of her family.
  Thank you, sweet Teresa, for your love for us that you openly shared on the Forum.  We love you and Sherri and both of your families, with the same, deep, unconditional love

[Janet Harrington]

My Grandma's Hands could do anything, as I am sure most everyone's Grandma's can.  Both my Grandmothers were fantastic cooks and oh how we loved to go to Grandma's for dinner or supper.

Grandma Hancock lived on a farm and she taught all of us how to fish.  Grandma always had lots of cane fishing poles and we would dig worms out in the cow lot or behind the chicken house.  Grandma would always put the worms on the hooks, teach us how to throw the line with the sinker and bobber out in the water and then would take the fish off when we would catch one.  We would have picnics in the rain, on the wrap around porch, so we knew that we did not have to have warm weather and sunshine to have a fantastic picnic.  Grandma taught us to make our own fun and she always had the most fun.

Grandma Furrow lived one block from us in Severy and it was nothing for us to walk over there two or three times a day when we weren't in school.  The best time of going to Grandma Furrow's was when she was baking bread.  When you would smell that bread baking, you just sat yourself at the table and waited.  When it came out of the oven and out of the pan, Grandma would make sure that we got a hot slice of homemade bread with lots of butter, not margarine, and we would fight over getting the heels because that was the best part of the loaf of bread.

Grandmas!!  They are what makes the world go round.   My grandmas are both gone and I miss them everyday, but I know they are what helped me make me who I am.  Love you, my Grandmas.

[Teresa]

I feel so sorry for people who don't have or never had a
real old fashioned  Grandma". 
I could write a book about the fun and memories that I had with my grandma.

My mother was and still is of course, an awesome Grandma to Danny and Derek and all the extending family of their's. I know that as kids they they had the best when it came to her.

I am not bragging but I am a also a top of the chart grandma to Ashley and I can't wait to continue on with my next little  crumb muncher that is on it's way.

What would we do without our grandma's??  I can't even imagine my years without mine.and I miss her every day.

(( Doesn't anyone else have grandma stories to share?))

[pam]

I was reading old posts again today and found this one. Made me think of Granma Smith, one of the things I remember most about her is her hands. They were small and square and soft and hard she twiddles her thumbs when she was just settin, they made cookies and planted, cut meat and wrung chickens necks, and patted me when she sang tu-ra-lu-ra-lu-ra, holdin her one fancy china coffee cup that she drank out of when she was feelin blue cause it made her feel better, thank you for causin me to remember

[Lookatmeknow!!]

This is such a wonderful things to read.  I remember my Grandma Knight just like it was yesterday.  She was and still is very important to me.  She taught me how to sew, to play the piano (I am not the best), cook, and most importantly how to be a kind loving person.  My Grandma taught my mom those things and I know that she passed them on to me.  I love to cook for my family just like my grandma loved to cook for us.  She lived right across the street from us and I would spend hours there a day.  I don't remember much about my Grandma Ware, I was really little when she passed away.  But nothing takes the place of Grandmas.  My mother has passed on, so my girls only have Grandma Town.  They love every minute that they spend with her!!  Thanks Teresa for posting this!!!

[momof 2boys]

My Grandmad Lillian was so completely wonderful!!!  She taught me to love life! I was lucky enough to grow up a block from grandma's house.  I don't believe that there was a day that went by that I wasn't running up to grandma's. 

You would never catch my grandma inside knitting or baking something, she just wasn't that kind of grandmother.  She loved nature.  She would spend hours outside working with her flowers.  Boy howdy, the one and only time I got into trouble with that woman was when I picked one of her flowers! I have grandma's love of gardening, as I have planted so many flowers since moving into our house 5 years ago.  I actually live on the land my grandma called home.  There isn't a single time that I don't think of her when I am outside.   

She loved animals too.  I was on a horse before I could walk.   She raised chickens and I can still remember her bringing in hatching eggs and helping those poor baby chicks hatch.  She related to animals more so than any human.  Her love for them has truly passed on to my sister and I.

She was also one of the most onery people I ever met!  She and my grandfather both.  One of my most favorite pictures of my grandparents is gramps is dressed up as a clown and grandma has a pioneer outfit on.  I believe it was probably at a rodeo.  As my grandparents where very involved in rodeo. 

I do believe that my youngest son inherited her wit! She would truly get a kick out of him!!  She loved onery kids!!

I cannot express with words what my grandmother meant to me.  All I can say is that when she passed it left such a hole in my life.  No one could ever replace that void.   

[Teresa]

I loved Harold and Lillian. They and my mom and dad were the best of friends..and my mother can tell some stories that will have the tears running about their shenanigans.
Thanks for sharing Gina...