Grandma's Bed

It's old. It's too small for today's mattress sizes. The finish is scratched and worn. It belonged to my grandmother. I wouldn't part with it for anything. I was three years old when she passed away. Grandma always wore a headscarf, she dipped snuff, and she was living in the house with us. I once thought my head was stuck between the rails of our stairs. I cried and screamed until Grandma told me to straighten my head and pull it back out.

 

Grandma enjoyed playing with me and my kittens. I would bring a kitten to her and she would swaddle it in one of her scarves. One day, she was sitting in her rocking chair, trying so hard to wrap my kitten but her hands just weren't able to get the scarf folded correctly. I looked up at her face and she was staring straight ahead. A little bit of ambeer was trickling from the corner of her mouth. Even though I was only three, I knew something was terribly wrong. I ran and got my dad. Grandma had suffered a stroke. She passed away in the hospital sometime later.

 

My cousin once told me that when she gets really lonesome for her mother, she takes her mom's sweater from the closet and puts it on. It still has the faint aroma of her mother's favorite perfume. This gives her the feeling of being wrapped in her mother's loving arms. When I get sad, I lie on this bed, close my eyes, and let the memory of my grandmother's love console me.