Eden's Wanderings and Wonderings

I grew up with my maternal grandmother. My parents and siblings lived close but somehow I grew up / lived with my Grandma. I loved it!

Thinking about Brenda's lists of Three Things... inspired me to think and ultimately wirte about what I learned from my Grandmother... and perhaps later about other significant figures in my life -

1.Strong Women - Not a recent invention. With talk about strong women, women empowerment, etc. these days; my grandmother epitomized all these looooong time ago. She was a single mother before it was common place. Well, in the Philippines it is looked down on if one is a single parent, even at this day and age. My maternal grandfather left my grandma early on the marriage, so Grandma raised thier only daughter alone.

She held her head high as it was not her choosing to be left by her veterenarian husband. She did what she could, raised and sent her daughter to college when she herself was illiterate. She managed her farm and lived off the income of the farm.

2. Girlfriends are important.. Grandma had a couple of real close gal pals who hang out at her home. They would cook together, gossip, smoke, (yes, smoke), and even had sleepovers and lots of laughs. One is never too old to have sleepovers. I often wondered what they talked and laughed about.

3. Chocolate is good with and on everything.. There was always some form of chocolate in grandma's house. Lucky me. I got to have some too... We would have hot cocoa anytime of day... Yummy. She actually had some cocoa plants that bear cocoa in her farm.

She passed away in 1973 a couple of months after I got married and immigrated to the U.S. I still miss her and think of her every now and then. I want to retire on her farm one of these days. The farm is waiting for me...