SUPER GRANDMA

 

With the pleasure of doing another good deed for the world and with a smile on her face, she took the sapling branch and planted it in the ground, saying, “Let this grow here.” Amazed by her, I asked: Grandma, will the sapling grow like this?

I think that a person is fortunate if they've had a childhood with their grandparents. Imagine listening to someone who has gone through many things before you. You don't have to make the same mistakes they’ve done anymore. You’ll know what the outcome’ll be if you do. Or, of course, you can choose to try and learn on your own. But who’d desire a costly experiment? An 80-year-old human being. It sounds easy, but think about all those years of living.

Grandma told time and time again that when they migrated from their hometown, the apartment buildings and avenues here were once barren lands with scarce trees. What we looked at and saw were very different. I saw the bus stop, the mosque behind, the asphalt road, she saw her past. They’d tried to hold on to life when it was harsh. A family with five children in a single-room house... Moreover, the father of the house had gone to Germany for labor. They all tried to hang on, him, in a foreign country, my grandparents, in a city they’d just arrived.

My grandmother used to say, “Human has to be occupied”. Maybe that's why she continued what she learnt in her hometown here in the city. Beans, aubergines, corn... So many had my grandparents grown. They fed and were fed with them. They sold them and lived off by their profits. There wew hard times, but they knew how to overcome it. When the people around them were in the same spot, they were able to help with each other's needs. Moreover, grandma used to act like a counsellor those around her. Of course, with subtle jabs or by poking them with the branch in her hand... If someone's garden needed ploughing, they’d do it all together. Someone’s sick? The neighbour would look after their child. And sometimes they’d have to look after them for a whole week. And nobody would even say a word. That's why my eighty year old grandma used to chit-chat and have fun with her friends as if they were high schoolers. Despite everything, women used to complement the cost seen in the wrinkles of men with a warm, life filled smile. And how delightful their conversations were. Their brief sentences filled with years... Sentences, those values are better understood over time...

And there’s that... People who were in line with their target had gradualy made this place like their hometown. It became a place where everyone knew and trusted each other. It's nothing like our housing estate life, is it?

Anyways... I’ll answer the initial question. My grandma passed on with the melting snow towards the end of winter. While we eat the fruits of the cherry tree she planted by her own hands, we think back on her answer: “If you take care of the earth, it will take care of you.”