My Nana The Nomad
I wrote this little essay about my Nana back when I was in High School . . . on August 1, 2001. I thought I would repost it here because it is a testament to my Nana's character.
My nana came home today. She is quite an interesting character. She provides a lot of laughs in my family. Funny things just seem to follow her. I just thought I should take advantage of that situation and bring it to my readers as a little bit of comic relief. You might think I'm making this up, but this is 100% real!
First off, my nana is a nomad. She moves around from place to place. She doesn't really have a "home." Her whole life she has lived in a kinda gypsy-like state. Even when my dad was a kid, she carted him off every couple of years (or months) to a new place to live. Now she calls her "home" Arkansas, but a few years ago, Texas was her "home." I'd say her "home" is in California because that is where three of her four children live. My aunt Martha lives in Nevada.
For the past couple of months, after spending a few months in Arkansas, she has been bouncing around from each of her children's houses. She was here for a day about three weeks ago, but she packed up and went to Modesto to stay with my aunt Linda. Today she is back here, for some unknown reason. I'm sure she won't stay for too long, seeing as she has some aversion to staying in one place. Maybe she'll go see my uncle Jesse (yes, I have an uncle named Jesse, just like in "Full House") in El Monte. Or perhaps she'll hear a call to go back to Arkansas? I never know with her. She's lucky to have such a reliable little car to get her from place to place.
I'm always amazed at how well my Nana gets around. I mean, she's old for one thing. Secondly, she not only has diabetes, but she had her hips replaced about two years ago. She never stops complaining about how much pain she is in, but she continues to bounce around. She even has her own traveling companion, Baby, a toy poodle. She is tough. Heck, up until about a few months ago, she was working EVERY DAY! She was an aide, she assisted older people! She is 70+ years old for God's Sake! She has finally come to her senses to stop working, but the lack of things to do leaves her quite bored. That's where her hobbies come in.
My nana loves garage sales. And she likes the Goodwill and other second hand stores. She calles then "Gundies" short for "segunda" or second (in Spanish). Anyways, she buys up car loads of junk and drags them along with her and gives them away as gifts to her zillions of grandchildren, children, nieces, nephews, and friends. After while, the things that are rejected accumulate and she has a yard sale of her own. She likes to use my grandma's house as a venue for her sales since my grandma's house is located on a busy street. I don't think she's ever kept a piece of furniture longer than three years.
Her other hobbies include watching her "novelas" on the Spanish language channels. She gets mad at me if I call them the Mexican channels. I swear, when she watched TV, it's 100% real to her. She screams at the TV and gasps in shock. It scares me sometimes. And she believes all the stupid stories on the Spanish News about the "Chupacabra." She also has a fond affection for talking on the phone at about a thousand decibals. I swear, she is the loudest old lady I've ever met. Her laugh is crazy and her habit of swearing in Spanish is so rampant, even some of my friends know about it.
And like I said, funny things follow her. Once, she was on one of her stops at my house and my dad asked her to clean the windows on our French doors. So she is home alone and she is in the backyard, cleaning the windows on our French doors. She stepped back to admire her work and SPLASH! She fell into my pool! She doesn't know how to swim, but luckily she fell into the shallow end and was able to pull herself out. When we came home that day, we thanked her for cleaning the windows and she just went into a tyrate about how she fell in the pool. We were all laughing our butts off.
Okay, one more funny story: So one day, my nana is upstairs in her room, watching her "novelas" and me and my friend Neda are sitting in the computer room, working on a project. For some reason, Neda and I went into the front yard. I don't remember why, but that's not important. So when we want to go inside I notice that the front door is locked. I rang the doorbell and she didn't answer. I rang again and I heard (from outside, mind you) "Jessica, get the door, someone's out there." Neda and I busted up laughing while we rang a few more times before my nana came and answered the door. As she opened the door she remarked, "Oh, it's you." Neda and I still joke about that one.
Yes, I could probably go on and on about my nana. She is such a character. I can't imagine my life without her. She's led me on many an adventure. Like once, my brother and I were staying with her for a week and one night, since she couldn't sleep she cooked about four full meals in one night. Or the time we got lost in Lancaster and she kept on insisting we weren't lost. Yes, I'm grateful I have such an . . . interesting Nana. I love her much! Gee . . . I will probably end up like her one day.
~LOVE~