Everyone in my family maintains that my great-grandmother Johanna was an intelligent and insightful woman. There are, however, but a few statements that have been handed down from her. “You can tell a fool by his laughter,” is one of them.
My great-grandmother didn’t talk as much as she worked hard – all her life right up to the end when I got a chance to meet her briefly. It was a life just like the lives of most people she knew: A life defined by work consisting mostly of housework and subsistence farming. Just making a meal involved myriad steps starting with pulling up water from a well and splitting kindle wood.
Each day started early and ended only when the chores were done and another day of life had been successfully mastered. Survival, just sixty years ago, required skills that combined high levels of know-how, problem-solving, and ingenuity surpassed only by prevailence.
Not once did my great-grandmother wondered about her role in life, her personal strength and weaknesses, let alone her goals. She quietly smiled at the notion of friendships and probably would have looked stymied if asked whether she was happy.
Sure enough her life wasn’t easy and she may not have lived up to her full potential, but there was no doubt in her or anyone else’s mind that it was a purposeful life.
1 comment:
This sounds like the life my grandmother lived. She was born in 1897 and worked hard everyday she was alive but every picture I've seen of her one thing shines through...her smile. Life was simplier but harder, less time to contemplate about the things we worry about now but at least my grandmother knew what it took to survive..I sometimes wonder if I could if I were thrown into her world.
Great post.
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