Hello from Swannanoa!

I drove up this morning to stay with Grandma. I can't say for sure how she is doing....she is certainly more "frail" than the last time I saw her (July 4th, I guess). She is walking very carefully with the walker and wants someone with her as she walks. She's having some problems with a sore throat - which may be from the non-stop storytelling!!! I'm serious, she never stopped talking from the time I walked in the door until the time we said goodnight! She said that she wanted to watch Jeopardy on the TV, so I turned it on....but neither of us got to watch it because she was still talking!!

Let's see if I can list some of the tales:

Ike taking one of the boys to fight in a youth boxing match (she couldn't remember which boy) and they cried - Ike was humiliated

Grandma doing a fleamarket to get the $70 seed money for the Manna Food Bank (now a really large charity)

Tales about her friend in Haiti and the little girl she sends $25 per month to support

Her involvment in the Buckeye Cove Beautification Club & it's awards

Her learning Russian at UNCA

Her writing classes

Tales about trips with the grandkids up on the mountain - camping in tents, then the bus, then the two of them at cabin, then at their small cabin

Their trip to California and Alaska

Their trip to Maine (I didn't know about this one) something about Ike getting a bag of potatoes - couldn't figure out if that's all they did on that trip....

Tales about her Aunt that was in a mental institution

and many, many more!

I would love to record them, but she insists that she hates the sound of her voice....I would sit and type them as she talks, but I don't think I can keep up. I might try it tomorrow if she's willing. She keeps talking about writing the stories down, but doesn't seem inclined to do so.

I did write down the following as items I'd like to look into:

She talked about a lady called Kitty Kanyski (have no idea about the spelling - that's just how it sounded Kan-Is-Key). When she was taking Russian - must have been in '80-'82, she and Ike participated in a film about "Twin Cities". I think it may have been that Asheville was partnering with a city in Russia as a "sister" city. They apparently interviewed Grandma and Ike about their life and views on some politics. She thought it was shown at the Cannes film festival (but didn't win). It would be fabulous to try to find the film if it still exists.

The other thing is that she was talking about her father and how he picked on her (tried to make her mad..) but he also sang to her - and one of the songs was "Little Bird on Molly's Hat". She has tried but can't find the lyrics or music. Thought I'd search the internet when I get back home....

I'm going to try to dial-in on her phone-line now and upload this.

Later, after much looking at an "hourglass spinning",,, I'm having trouble loading photos - haven't been able to load a photo since last night....I'm going to have to figure that out. I'll load photos when I can!! See ya, K