Grandma and the "square fish"

 

My grandmother, who was also one of my closest and dearest friends, was in a nursing home the last ten years of her life. I always made sure that in my visits home I made a point to stop by the nursing home to spend time with her. Our visits were always filled with conversations of family, friends, precious memories of times gone by, and secrets shared only between she and I. On many of the visits I would witness a side of my sweet grandmother that I never remembered seeing before her move to the nursing home; she would become very aggressive and outspoken, I guess after years of being humble and soft spoken she had deserved the right to voice her opinion! On one occasion the attendant brought her dinner tray upon which laid a square piece of filet of fish. As she looked at the unfamiliar delicacy, she asked the attendant, "What is that?" The attendant responded, "Mrs. Lamm, that's fish!", at which time my grandmother replied, "Here I am, 95 years old and I ain't never seen no square fish!"

 

This would not be a profound statement for most of us, but coming from my elderly grandmother, who never voiced her opinion or spoke harshly about anyone or anything, this was very profound! When she went to her eternal rest on the day after her 101st birthday, I knew she had died happy, thrilled to finally be going home where, hopefully, she would never have to eat square fish!