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"Grandma's Song"     by  Siu Wai Stroshane    swstroshane@cs.com
 

I am a vessel of water
Those who are thirsty may come to me
I have soothed many foreheads and washed many hands...
I have tended the soil of my own garden
Trees of fruit and flowers know my touch
They know my touch.

I can still see her, a short, slight woman with wispy white hair coiled in a
bun, slowly  moving among her bright flowerbeds with a watering can in hand.
She loved her garden and worked in it every day, right up until the end.
Grandma Anderson was a special person in my earliest memories, when I was
first adopted into her son's family. Dad was a minister, and he and Mom
already had three boys when I came from Hong Kong. I remember taking to
Grandma right away, and she to me. She was gentle and kind, and for some
reason, I liked to toddle around with her big purse in hand (maybe I was
pretending to be her.) There we are in a family snapshot, both small people,
looking so different from one another, but bonded in affection.

In another photo, Grandma, Dad, and I are at the shore of Lake Champlain in
Vermont. The blue waters are in the background as the three of us sit in the
sand--I in a frilly, colorful swimsuit and straight black hair, Dad in his
bathing suit smiling down at me, and Grandma, demurely dressed in a blue
print dress and long-sleeved sweater! And there is that same big purse.
I tell people I had a Swedish grandmother and they look at me with
bemusement, yes, of course you did. But I remember the delicious meat
pastries she made called "kolldomers"(it's hard to spell the name exactly in
computerese.) Once she made a soup that I was enjoying until I asked what it
was. "Beef tongue," she replied calmly. I gasped and couldn't eat another
mouthful, much to her dismay.

I am a vessel of comfort
My children and their children have laughed with me and
loved with me
I have been here many years
Knowing and trusting
Healing and touching
With my strength, I give to others
And they give to me so many good things.

In the early 1900's, Grandma came alone from Sweden to America at the age of
13.  Lydia May had to learn English when she arrived, and later she studied
nursing. I can see her moving among the beds on the hospital wards, soothing
those in pain, offering nourishment and water as she would tend to her
beloved flowers years later. Eventually she married Arthur Anderson, a
printer, in Chicago, and raised three sons and a daughter. Uncle Bill was a
minister and social worker; Uncle Paul, of whom I've written elsewhere, is a
cellist; my dad is a retired minister, and my Aunt Nancy is an artist.

I am a vessel of life
I will go on forever...

Grandma and Grandpa are both gone now, but they live on in our memories,
cherished by those who loved them.

Siu Wai Stroshane is a writer and musician living in Boston with her husband,
two children, and one guinea pig. She will write songs on commission. Her
short stories have appeared in several anthologies.

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