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Diaryland
Dad's mother 2003-11-04 @ 5:05 p.m.
My dad's mother's name is Laura and she currently lives at a Jewish retirement home near Danville, which is close to both my parents and my uncle's home. Her ethnic background is Hungarian Jew, and the thing that gets people about this is Hungarian Jews are blonde. She's gotten signficant flak for this. When my grandmother and my grandmother got married, there were relatives at the wedding gossiping in Yiddush that my grandfather had married a gentile. After hearing an earfull of this, my grandmother proceeded to get up in front of everyone there and, in Yiddush, chew them out for their comments. Many years later, when my dad married my mom, who actually is a gentile, there was a relative at their wedding who made a similar snide remark. My grandmother was furious at that relative, not only for that comment but for other stupid things she was known to blurt out from time to time. Although her name escapes me at the moment, she acquired the title of "the little idiot" in our branch of the family, and we've avoided her whenever possible.
For most of her life, my grandmother has been a very progressive and independant woman. She volunteered her time in the Jewish community, including time spent with the then newly-formed Anti-Defamation League. Sad, because in my understanding the ADL now spends less energy on promoting tolerance and understanding and more on accusing anyone critical of Zionism of being anti-Semitic. Back to my grandmother though, she also worked as a model for a fashion designer named Evelyn Rogers, who specialized in large women's clothing. Then, as now, the clothing industry tends to overlook women who aren't capable of fitting into a sardine can. My grandmother's main career, however, was in the then new field of computers. She had a management position at IBM and worked with the first big commercial data processors. Later she taught typing and data processing at Chabot college in Hayward, and she took up drawing as well.
Since my grandfather passed away, life has been difficult for my grandmother. She's had lots of physical problems with her back, knees and hips. She's been seriously depressed many times. She wasn't able to take care of her place in Redmond, so she sold it and moved back to California. She lived in a townhouse for a bit, then moved back to Rossmoor, and then we helped her move into a retirement home. She absolutely hated that one because of its depressing atmosphere, but she recently moved into a really nice Jewish home that she's enjoying. For a couple of years, my grandmother's mind was kind of on standby from a combination of things. Her depression combined with both pain medications that made her dopy and Alzheimer's disease, which we only discovered a few months ago. After getting into a better place, having some surgery and switching medications, she is doing much better now. I went to Yom Kippur services with her, my dad and my uncle not too long ago, and she was thrilled to see me. I hear lately she's getting out of her room a lot more and has made several friends in her new home. Finally it seems like she's starting to be more of her old self again, which is a great relief for all of us.
"Details in the Fabric" - May 31, 2009
Not So Quick Questions - April 6, 2009
The Morning Stars - Lords of the 15 - April 9, 2009
Sincerity and Faith in Magic - April 10, 2009
Not So Quick Questions (2) - April 14, 2009
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