Be patient with life as it comes, because brother, its coming. Enjoy the best of it. Tolerate the worst. Fight back when you have to. And dont panic. Last year, I called my grandmother on her 92nd birthday. Ma Ma (pronounced Maw Maw) and I chatted about the small things: her bumper crop of tomatoes, her spread of blooming roses, the dalliances of her cat Miss Kitty and about my pace, which had quickened while living in the “big city of Atlanta.” As the conversation waned, I asked her what important lessons she had learned in her 92 years, what advice she would offer. She replied with the above. Ma Ma--known outside the family as Velma Louena Holliday Latham--passed away this morning. She was strong—the daughter of a West Alabama sharecropper who moved his family several times to find better fields during the Depression; a seamstress who found great joy and purpose making clothes for residents at a mental health development center; a faithful wife to my Pa Pa, who, poetically, shared her birthday and sold sewing machines; a loving mother to my father and uncle, two successful men who cared for her until her last living moment. She was a force in our family. She was vocally opinionated. She shot straight. She told us when she thought we were too skinny or heavy, when we should go to church more often. She was sometimes-strict and sometimes-sweet. She loved us and prayed for us and worried over us every day. She was an amazing cook. She made the best fried okra I have ever had, will ever have. And as I remember her today, I think about how she was human and complex and about how she saw the world so differently than I did. About how the two generations between us often seemed even further apart. About how that distance was immediately bridged with our shared senses of humor. About how I inherited her unique laugh. About how she will always be a significant part of me. And I think about how she lived what she learned. She was patient with life. I saw her enjoy the best of it and tolerate the worst. She fought back fiercely, and even at the end, in the midst of that fighting, she never panicked. Rest in peace, Ma Ma. I love you. (I first interviewed Ma Ma in 2010. Her are some pics and a short audio excerpt where she recounts how she first wooed my grandfather.) edgeoftheroad.typepad/my_weblog/2010/06/gadsden-al-interview-with-my-ma-ma.html
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 15:27:37 +0000
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