Spoiled I am. I grew up with my Grandma. Anyone who has done this knows what I mean. They are right, those tacky signs that say “If mom says no, ask Grandma.” She lived with us and spoiled my sister and me at every opportunity. It was blissful!
One of my favorite memories of her spoiling is the time that she spent getting us to go to sleep every night. Daddy had always put us to bed with stories and silly songs and one verse of “In the Garden”. To this day I can’t sing that hymn without being a little teary over Daddy. But, once Grandma Irbie moved in with us, SHE had to sing us to sleep after Daddy did. Talk about finding any excuse to stay up later!
She sang us “Wonderful Words of Life” and “Showers of Blessings”. She knew lots of hymns and silly songs too. One of the silly ones was about a farmer who planted buttons but all he got was a ‘row of buttonholes!’ Can’t remember the exact words or the tune. I’ve never found that song anywhere, maybe she made it up.
After she sang to us, if we still were awake, she would tell us stories about our mom as a little girl or even stories of her own childhood. She was born in 1899, so she told us about a time long gone, but ever so enticing. We learned about her mamma’s chickens, and how the cows went down the street by themselves to the field and when it was dark they came home by themselves too. We learned about the times during both world wars, the Great Depression, and the Fifties.
I think I’ve mentioned before that Grandma was a school teacher. That meant that, even with all the spoiling, we were expected to do our homework well, and she checked it every time. She helped with spelling, was a task master with multiplication tables, and when we started studying history and government, she was more than happy to teach us all she could. Those 2 subjects were her special favorites. She was very interested in politics, read all she could about it and listened to the radio news all the time to learn more.
From the cooking and handcrafts, and school work, to the singing and cuddling and fun, living with her in our home was always interesting, she added so much. And as we grew up, she was more than a grandmother, she was our friend.
Here are the words, do you know this one?
1. Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life;
let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life;
words of life and beauty teach me faith and duty.
Refrain:
Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.
Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.
2. Christ, the blessed one, gives to all wonderful words of life;
sinner, list to the loving call, wonderful words of life;
all so freely given, wooing us to heaven.
(Refrain)
3. Sweetly echo the gospel call, wonderful words of life;
offer pardon and peace to all, wonderful words of life;
Jesus, only Savior, sanctify forever.
(Refrain)
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