Great Grandmoms
Yesterday when I was putting Gabriel's pants on, he turned to me, face scrunched up, and started counting on the fingers of his right hand.
"I have four grandmoms and grandpops," he announced.
His father's father died years ago, so I was about to correct him.
Then Gabriel, while counting his fingers, said: "Grandmom Patience, Grandmom Honey, Grandpop Larry, and Great-Grandmom Esther!"
Great-Grandmom Esther was my grandmom. She died when I was twenty-six, but lived five blocks away from me in New Jersey. She used to bake chocolate cupcakes for us, and she came to the U.S. in the early 1900's from a village in Hungary called Munkach. I was strangely touched by Gabriel mentioning her, like she continued to exist in Berkeley in 2005 and now had a presence in Gabriel's brain, part of his biology and spirit.
Then I remembered Gabriel has another great-grandmother who is still alive. She lives in the Volta Region of Ghana in a small village called Kadjebei. She is somewhere in her eighties. We haven't met her yet.
"I have four grandmoms and grandpops," he announced.
His father's father died years ago, so I was about to correct him.
Then Gabriel, while counting his fingers, said: "Grandmom Patience, Grandmom Honey, Grandpop Larry, and Great-Grandmom Esther!"
Great-Grandmom Esther was my grandmom. She died when I was twenty-six, but lived five blocks away from me in New Jersey. She used to bake chocolate cupcakes for us, and she came to the U.S. in the early 1900's from a village in Hungary called Munkach. I was strangely touched by Gabriel mentioning her, like she continued to exist in Berkeley in 2005 and now had a presence in Gabriel's brain, part of his biology and spirit.
Then I remembered Gabriel has another great-grandmother who is still alive. She lives in the Volta Region of Ghana in a small village called Kadjebei. She is somewhere in her eighties. We haven't met her yet.
posted by joyfish at 4:37 PM
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