Day 14 - A Poem for My 90 Year Old Grandmother, After We Video Chat
My grandmother is ninety years old. She has lived in San Francisco since 1989. For her birthday this year, she got a device for her television so that she can videochat over FaceTime. That's right--she learned to FaceTime for her 90th birthday. Yes, she is as spunky as she seems by the sound of thisanecdote.Last time we chatted she went on a rant about prejudices and Frumpypants. "I don't care if you're gay, straight, black, white, trans, or whatever, and so on and so forth, you should do whatever you want to do."
Don't EVER let anyone pull the "that's how that generation was raised," card on you when making excuses for hatred and bigotry among older people. My grandmother, Gramma we call her, is proof that that excuse is BS.
Anyway, this time around she told me the story about her childhood experience with polio. I had not heard this story before. She remembers details so crisply. I wrote them down as she told me the story. Then I wrote today's poem from it.
The Cure
for Gramma Eileen
May you be ninety years old
And learn to video chat
On your birthday
Speak to your granddaughter
Across the country
The first girl born
After a generation of men
The polio doctors who cured you
So that you could walk again at age 12
Said that you probably couldn't have children
Seven sons later
You'll tell their eldest daughter
The doctors got that one wrong