My Mom’s mom is 96. She had a stroke (probably one of several) the other day, and right now they don’t really think that she’ll come out of it. Things have been rough for her lately, so I just hope that the end is easy for her. She has always been sort of a hoot….and I have lots of funny stories about her and her life. She did quite a few memorable things. And I might share several of them later….but for now, here is just a short one.

She has spent the last several years moving from one assisted living facility to another. Moving was always her choice. We joked that she got to meet all the residents…but when they started telling the same stories over and over again that she would say to herself, “I’m outta here!” And that would be that. My Mom always helped her fix up her room in each facility and make it homey and nice. One of the places that she lived had a little patio that was outside her room. Out there she had chairs and plants and a bird feeder. One day, we were visiting, and someone commented on her bird feeder. She said something to the effect of, “Squirrels have been bothering my bird feeder. The other day, I saw a big old squirrel just sitting up there eating his fill of all my bird seed and it made me so mad.” My Mom asked her what she did about it. (I think that my Mom probably thought that my grandmother had probably scared the squirrel away with a broom or something.) My grandmother answered her, “What did I do about it? I yanked that old squirrel out by his big old tail.” We looked at her with our mouths open. Then my mother started in on why she shouldn’t try doing that again because she might get bitten, etc. I was sort of listening — but I was also trying to visualize the whole thing — thinking how funny it would have been to see it. She had to have been at least 90 at the time. And, I bet that squirrel thought twice before bothering her bird feeder again.