Remembering Grandma

My dad's mother passed away when I was not yet twelve. As the years have gone by since her death, I always wish that I could've known her while I was an adult. At eleven, I was barely learning who I was as a person, so I only knew my grandma from a little kid's point of view.

My dad mentioned a few years ago that he'd recorded some cassette tapes of my grandma. I didn't think much about it at first, but the thought came to me that I should get a hold of those tapes and listen to them. Better yet, what if I wrote down everything she said so I'd be able to read it later? I didn't follow that prompting right away. Life got busy. I had two children and not a whole lot of spare time for such a big project.

I started poking around on Amazon to see if it would be possible to change these tapes into a better format, like MP3, so I could transfer them to CD's. I was astounded to see that I could buy a device to do that for only $20! Needless to say, I bought it right then. It took longer than normal for it to come in the mail, and I thought the anticipation would kill me. When it came, I got to work right away.

A few months later (I can't remember when I started on this project), I'm finally done! I have great treasures to share with my family: 70 typed pages, 10 CD's, and a much greater appreciation for my family history and for those who can actually type fast. (I averaged only 30 accurate words a minute. Not so good!)

Grandma Phenix is, in the words of Anne Shirley, my kindred spirit. Listening to her long-forgotten voice made me feel like she isn't so far away. I'd forgotten about her Southern accent and her great love for me. She always spoke more highly of me than I deserve, but isn't that what grandmas are for?

I hope I always have a good record of my life for my descendants. I'm pretty excited about the next project to come: transferring my family's old 8mm tapes into DVD's. I know I'm going to get a good laugh watching myself as a child (especially my own children's ages.) That project will probably have to wait until we move, but we'll see.