Christmas with Nana: The Joys of Giving and Giving Back

We called our grandmother on my mother’s side “Nana.” Nana was a widow for most of my life. Back in 1965, my grandfather died when I was about two-years-old. Nana supported herself after that, and although she worked a full-time job, she was poor. She lived in a one-bedroom apartment overlooking Lake Erie. She enjoyed the simple pleasures: watching the boats float on the water, entertaining her family on the weekends, swimming alone at midnight in the apartment’s tiny swimming pool. How did we know Nana was poor? She didn’t have enough money to do her laundry at the laundromat, so she did it in her bathtub. After she washed the clothes, she’d hang them up on the shower curtain bar. She drove a very old car that had a hole in the floorboard. She often remarked that she could see the ground pass as she drove along. To compensate for this, she covered the hole with an antique oriental rug, an artifact from wealthier days. She worked 40 hours a week as a photographer at a department store in a suburb of Cleveland. Nana didn’t make much money at this. Despite the fact that we knew she was poor, we never really understood how poor she was because she always served us Fritos, chip dip and Ginger ale when we went to visit on Friday nights. This junk food was a luxury for us because our parents didn’t splurge on extras. Nana found enough cash to cook us big spaghetti dinners. She loved to flavor the pasta with big chunks of pork; it was heavenly. And at Christmas, she...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Family Holiday Coping Personal Charity Christmas Family Bond family memories giving back Grandmother Holidays Source Type: blogs