[Magdalen] 50th Reunion

[Ginga Wilder]

 What a good woman! Do we have characters like your grandmother today?
Thanks for telling us about her.

Ginga

On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 1:31 PM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:

> From: Ginga Wilder
>
>  Great story, Jim.  You grandmother must have been some kinda woman!
>>
>
> She pitched softball at her 75th and 80th birthday parties, and died of a
> stroke on her way to a bridge game after fixing dinner for my folks --
> after having played 18 holes of golf -- on a December afternoon, yet.  Her
> first reaction to losing one side of her body getting into the car was to
> beep the horn until Dad came out, and insisted he take her to the bridge
> game rather than the hospital.
>
> One of my favorite incidents with her was the night she had three tables
> of bridge going -- and she and her friend Molly got to talking about
> something in London. So after the tables were cleared, they made an airline
> reservation to London -- for the next morning. Dad took them to the airport
> and off they went for a week. the following Tuesday, Molly's daughter
> called, distraught, that her Mom had "never made it home from the bridge
> game." Mom explained, "Oh they went to London." Molly's daughter soon
> persuaded her mother to move to Miami --  mainly to make sure Mom wan;t
> spending their [expected] inheritance.
>
> Of course, Molly got my grandmother to move visit Miami, and my
> grandmother joined Hadassah and then they went on a two week guided tour of
> Israel and then spent another two weeks there exploring on their own.
> Molly's daughter continued in great distress over such stuff.
>
> Then there was the time Molly, my grandmother and I went to Flemington NJ
> -- me to ride a train and they to shop in the boutiques. I returned just in
> time to find them in a store where they were being yelled at by two
> shopkeepers. They had been playing the elderly-lady version of good cop/bad
> cop -- i.e. one poor and on a fixed income and the other yelling at shop
> keepers they should give the poor one a break. What tripped them up was
> they were switching off roles from store to store, and one of their
> previous targets, er victims, errr shopkeeper came in to visit his neighbor
> and caught the (now reversed) act.
>
> Mom used to say she was often irritating but always interesting. May Dad
> said he felt exhausted just watching her.
>
> I hasten to say she was very helpful to me when all my friends were dying
> of Aids in the 1980s -- having gone through so many friends who died
> shortly after the grandparents retired, then again in the late 60s, and
> another group in the 1970s and then a in the 1980s, she offered a great
> deal of perspective for me.
>
>  I just posted my senior year book photo on FB....nevery knew how much my
>> granddaughter looks like me...especially her eyes.  I look(ed?) like my
>> grandmother, especially the eyes.  Feeling nostalgic.
>>
>
> Some of my sister's kids look like by grandmother and my mother -- but
> they hate to admit it <g>.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim
>