Greetings From Arizona!
Thanks to everyone who has been writing and asking about GG. We spent a couple of days in Scottsdale seeing her "famous" and "good-looking" new cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic with much success.
While we were going through the machinations of registering, filling out paperwork, checking into the hotel, having meals, vigilantly watching her take over 15 different pills a day, having tests done, blood drawn, etc... something really neat occured to me.
My grandmother is a very elegant and lovely woman. She takes great care with her appearance. She takes great care with the way she treats people. She goes out of her way to make others feel good about themselves. No matter how she is feeling, she always has time to pay a compliment to a stranger. She always takes the time to smile and listen to other people.
And she does it because that's the right thing to do. To not do so would make her uncomfortable. When she hasn't been feeling well of late, it takes extra effort on her part to pay these compliments and attend to others. But she does it. And the good news is, now because of the love and concern of others (you know who you are, Dr. & Mrs. H., Texas, and all of my friends, Internet and otherwise) she is back to feeling much, much better. And because of that, she is spreading sunshine at such a breakneck pace that it's exhausting even for her.
Now, as for the elegant appearance. I have been inventorying her jewelry selections for the last few days, and I can safely say that we should all care this much about how we look.
Simple, elegant, well-planned, yes. But effortless and easy. And welcoming.
GG almost exclusively wears a 22K gold granulation-bead ring and star pendant she bought over 30 years ago when she was living in Somalia. (photos to come soon... I am camera-free... but Trey might be coming for a visit and he might bring the camera... and the Pugs... and of course, himself... sigh)
My grandfather was a petroleum engineer, and the company for whom he once worked sent him and some other engineers to live in Mogadishu for a couple of years in the early 70s. At the time GG was, well, the wife of a petroleum engineer.
She tells colorful stories of Somali craftsmen selling goods in markets, in homes, at special parties for diplomats. She tells funny stories of the Somalis and Ethiopians and Sudanese who worked in their home and who were some of the most gracious people she ever knew. She tells stories of another petroleum engineer and his wife's pack of Rhodesian Ridgebacks who would lick her from her toes to her nose when she visited their home for ex-pat barbecues and card games.
She tells stories of how, back then, she always had the desire to paint the things she saw. And later, after her husband passed away, she did. Within a year of learning watercoloring herself, she was teaching lessons in her home in West Texas.
So you see, that although it can be a little taxing to travel and deal with doctors and so forth, it can be very rewarding, too.
