Even If She Was Not Always Nice

All my life my Grandma had a couple of things that really bothered her... and by bothered her I really mean she hated them and was not at all nice about them. One of these things was fatness. Yup, you read that right. She hated when people were fat.

As a kid we would go to my Grandparent's house and she would ask me if I was getting fat. Mind you I was never a big kid. I was always pretty skinny. One of the funniest things was she would ask me if I was getting fat and then she would say things like "Do you want a Snickers?" For someone who hated people getting fat they always had plenty of junk food around and always tried to force it upon everyone even when we politely said "No, thank you."

After I had gained weight

As a young adult I gained lots of weight. My Grandma made sure to comment on it regularly. She didn't care if it hurt my feelings; she thought telling me was helpful and would change the fact that I was fat. When I got gastroparesis and lost a bunch of weight my Grandma was thrilled. She didn't really understand how sick I was. I lived across the country by then.

While my Grandma lived in assisted living she always complained about what she called "the fat butts." They took up extra space, their chairs stuck out into the walkways in the dining room. I tried to explain that it wasn't nice to call people fat butts. She told me she could say what she wanted because it was true, they did have fat butts. She tried to convince "the fat butts" that they should walk with her daily so they could lose weight.

The first time Grandma saw me after I lost we

Last fall my Grandma was in the hospital dying, I unfortunately could not go home to see her. Thanks to modern technology, my son and I did have an opportunity to FaceTime with her in the hospital. We talked about how much she loved us and how much we love her. We talked about life and death. She told me she was ready to "go home" to her heavenly home. The whole time my heart ached knowing this would be my last conversation with her. I was on the verge of tears and then in good old Grandma fashion... she says "You haven't gotten fat again, have you?" In a slightly exasperated voice I said "No, Grandma" and had my son hold up the phone so she could see me from head to toe. Then, she asked if my son was fat and made me show him to her from head to toe. She was thrilled that neither of us had gotten fat. I was glad that even with death at her door she had not changed... even if she was not always nice.