My Grandma Dorothy Genevieve Nelson

In a sense, we only know people by what and how they are to us, and to me: my Grandma Dorothy was kind, civilized, and compassionate.

She took her tea often on a tiny cup on an elegant saucer, always with a lemon; She enthusiastically prepared delicious lunches like tuna sandwiches with a side of pickle and black olives(as the wife of an architect and the mother of three boys, this sort of thing had been her life-long job.) She believed in the hope and promise of world and The Democratic Party; She told many stories about depression-era Chicago, and they were good old stories with simple morals(or with none) and, though they were oft repeated and I can't remember them, I genuinely liked to listen.

She was one-generation from Sweden, and Swedish flags and folk-lore filled the house, along with the many quaint and curious decorations...
that accompanied the wisdom and compassion that were hers, along with the folly that is humanity's,
ALL of ours perhaps.

My grandma kept toys for my visits: also many literary books and, by the bed I slept in, a collection of E.A. Poe's writings including one on interior decoration.

In her old age, she took a trip to China with a group of old lady friends. She was active and energetic with her old lady friends(I remember one who was mostly blind, but still kept a beautiful garden;) If she ever said anything to me about The Middle Kingdom, I don't recall.

She told me stories I cannot remember, for example about a beloved brother named Ray who was a brick-layer and never married, and was reminded to her by my uncle Mark who is still alive, doing well or ill I do not know.

My grandma died when I was 18; We gave a service and some friends came and though I spoke,
I don't remember it well: We buried her by my grandpa in an Oregon cemetery which as it happens, is by their last home: a vast and quiet estate
full of oak trees and graves(some from the earliest days of Oregon's settlement): fortunately we don't live so far away.

I could not say why I felt the need to put down these words about a woman most readers did not know; I do not regret them, though, not for a moment... nor think they could ever be thanks enough.