I'm her granddaughter all right

Day One of the celebrations is over. It was a pretty good day: both my horse and DVD collections were expanded and I got caught up on some of the family news, as well as some history I didn't know. I even went to Lowe's and Home Depot for lumber and masonite - it's impossible to not have a good time roaming the aisles of a home improvement store. Wood! Gadgets! Plants! Adhesives!

The story I learned about the family history involved my maternal grandmother. Now, my grandmother was a character anyway. The story came up about the time one Christmas when my mom was wearing dress shoes and nearly did a split in my aunt's gravel driveway. On the way home, my grandmother heard what happened and said, "You ought to be careful! That walkin's dangerous!"

Here's the part of the story I didn't know: Sometime before this particular Christmas, my grandmother had taken care of her own funeral arrangements with one of those "pre-paid" deals. Instead of waiting after the holidays to tell the entire family, she sat my mom and her sister down at the Christmas get-together and started instructing them on how to act at the funeral - a good twelve years before the actual event. So here is my mom, who is in her early forties, and her thirty something sister sitting there at kitchen table with my grandmother saying, "Now don't just sit there when somebody comes in. You go on up and you greet them at the casket..."

That's my MaMa. I've always said that I am certainly her granddaughter and this pretty much cinches it. I've already done something similar with my dad and paternal grandmother. The topic came up and I said, "I don't want to be pumped full of chemicals and put in the ground like an old hot dog at a landfill. I want to be cremated." When they objected on the grounds that there wouldn't be a place (a tombstone) to visit afterwards: "Then buy a rosebush and throw my ashes around it. The bush will be happy, you'll be happy and I won't care."

Speaking of my dad, he's coming over today. I'd better go get ready. I wonder if I'll hear any new stories today?