This is probably not the post you are expecting. I’ll do a belated writing update later, where I explain how I’m behind for good reasons, and how prep for our summer move got in the way. Probably.
I don’t often delve too deeply into my personal life here – curious, I know – and I attribute that largely to all the years where I couldn’t say too much because of my employment. That makes sharing hard for me to do. Please, bear with me.
I have often mentioned that when I was a young, developing geek, my family lived overseas. My Gran wasn’t a geek, or truth be told, much of a baker. But that didn’t stop her from sending care packages every few months. Sometimes they had cookies – hard, chocolate chip cookies with nuts in them. They might have been so hard after being shipped so far, but tiny bricks that they were, they were still a treat. Without fail, though, those packages would have a handful of Spiderman comics, every issue since the last package. My Gran didn’t like comics, didn’t know much of anything about them. But every week she would walk from her apartment, across a highway, then up the highway a mile to a crappy little B. Dalton’s in a nearby mall and buy whatever they had. I never thought about it, but she must have been keeping track of issue numbers, or at least covers, to avoid duplicates.
Those Spiderman comics were fuel for my imagination. When we moved to Germany, a listing mishap left our TV stateside. For the better part of the first two years, my imagination had to be fueled by books, comics, and the radio (Armed Forces radio re-aired old radio dramas at 7:30 weeknights – yes, the things you remember going on 30 years later). That simple act of sacrifice by my Gran – making what I later learned was a dangerous trek, just to get her favorite (and only) grandson some cheap comic books – is something I can never go back and say thank you for.
This past Sunday, my Gran passed away. The last few years she’s been battling with Alzheimer’s and related complications. Thankfully, during our visit last year she was her old self and was able to enjoy time with the girls. We miss you, Gran.
