Grandma & Grandpa

Well it's been kinda a weird start to 2010 so far. About five years ago, when I was living in Oceanside, my Grandma had a stroke. She survived and has been the same funny/crazy person she was before the stroke only with a little bit of a slur in her speech since then. She's been healthy though and I thought she would have at least a good five more years, five years from now that is, not five years from her stroke.

Grandpa on the other hand.... Well Grandpa was always the person that we thought would live forever. My Grandpa was an orange farmer and up until about a year ago he worked hard on his orchard and it seemed like nothing would ever slow him down. A year ago I called up Grandma and Grandpa answered the phone. I couldn't understand a word he said to me. When Grandma got on the phone she said that it's because his dentures are bugging him. Well a couple months later they found out that Grandpa has a terminal disease called Leu Gehrig's and he had anywhere from a couple months to ten years to live. I last saw Grandma and Grandpa when I was in SoCal for my birthday in October. Grandpa didn't look like the same person I always knew. Grandpa always was in good shape but with a big pot belly from all of Grandma's epic cooking. Last time I saw him he had lost weight and had to keep paper towels in his mouth because he was drooling and his mouth was getting dry, or something like that. It was really weird seeing Grandpa like that. That same month Grandpa made a trip with Grandma in their motorhome to Utah but soon after he lost his ability to drive. His health started deteriorating rapidly and everyone thought he would be gone within a year.

Well in the end of January Grandma and Grandpa were in their motorhome looking for something. Grandma tripped and fell back on Grandpa. Grandpa hit his head and Grandma broke her shoulder. Just a broken shoulder right? No big deal? Wrong. The hospital was irresponsible and didn't keep her even though she said that her hip was hurting and she was vomiting. They blamed the vomit on the drugs and didn't even look at her hip. Well the next morning my mom called me. I knew when I saw her number on my phone that something had happened and was thinking which one of my grandparents it could be. I talked to my mom and she told me they found my grandma dead on the toilet. Apparently she had broken four arteries in her hip when she fell and she died of internal bleeding.

Well after Grandma died Grandpa's condition started really going downhill. He soon after had to have a feeding tube inserted because he could no longer even drink the blended up food people were giving him. My dad, his step son by marriage, and probably the closest living person to him (along with his friend who happens to be named Bud as well), was there taking care of Grandpa around the clock. Then just six weeks after Grandma's death Grandpa died as well, just two hours after my dad had left his house.

So in just six weeks I lost both my grandparents, the closest people outside of my nuclear family.

I can remember back to the time when I was two years old. Probably the second oldest memory I have is when my little sister was born. I happen to remember being at Grandma's house. We always loved going to Grandma's house as kids. Grandma was an epic cook. She won first prize ribbons at county fairs and was often featured in the newspaper. She made the best beef jerky ever and she was a little on the crazy side about letting her recipes out. I remember I wanted to make some beef jerky for a camping trip about 8 years ago. I called up Grandma for the Recipe and she was hesitant to let out her secret recipe. Then when she finally did give it to me she told me I can't write it down because she feared it would get out. Grandma was just funny like that.

I remember back when I lived in Corona, so sometime around when I was 4 or 5 my Grandma come over with toys for all us kids. She gave both my sisters toys and then had two toys for boys, and I was suppose to choose one, and the other would go to my cousin Jordan. Well I couldn't choose. I wanted them both. One was a remote controlled boat, the other a stuffed animal. I was having a hard time choosing so Grandma gave me both. I don't know whatever happened to Jordan, maybe she bought him a new one.....But Grandma always tried to spoil us kids. I remember getting some use out of the remote control boat though.

Grandpa was a land owner. He owned 385 acres in Corona of orange groves, avocado, and grapefruit. He had a pretty large reservoir where my dad would always go fishing so my dad took me up there to play with that boat.

Grandma was always the happy, smiling grandma. I don't think I've ever seen Grandma mad, except when she was yelling at Grandpa of course. Grandma was funny, very blunt when she spoke which often shocked us with the things that she said, and she was just crazy at times. I remember one time she yelled "Kraemer!". I asked her why she didn't just yell Ed. She said "if I yell Ed it pushes on my bladder and I'll piss myself". Grandpa on the other hand was a different character. Grandpa's nickname with my cousins is "Grumpa". Grandpa had a kind of grumpy personality even when he wasn't mad but we still all liked being around Grandpa. When we would spend the night over there we would ask for ice cream and Grandpa would tell us no but then he would leave. We always knew that we were getting ice cream because when he left it was to get his special ice cream for us. Then he would come back and give us ice cream. I think it was vanilla bean or something, but it's not a common one found in stores I don't think, he got it at a local market or gas station. Grandpa's songs always made us laugh too. He would make up these songs and sing them really loud in the shower. Singing something about "I'm a mountain man from Tennessee".

Us kids were little hell raisers at Grandma and Grandpa's house too. We used to take the kumquats off the tree and place them in the road and hide and wait for cars to run them over. We would get disappointed when cars tried to avoid them and we would hide behind the trees hoping people would hurry up and run them over before Grandpa caught us. One days we decided that the kumquats were too small so we busted out the big boys, naval oranges. We thought we were busted when a car slammed the brakes and rolled down the windows. Then the driver stuck his head out the window and said "you want me to run these over". We didn't know what to do so we just yelled back "yes". He then kept going back and forth in his car making sure to run them all over. Of course we were always afraid of getting caught making a mess of smashed up fruits in the street.

I also cracked my collarbone at my Grandma's house when I was four years old. I have actually never broken a bone in my life but my cousin's friend who was eight at the time pushed me in Grandma's front yard and I got a hairline fracture.

I remember when I was probably about 4 or 5 my parents went on their anniversary weekend to Catalina Island and Grandma came along to watch us kids. I barely remembered that one until I saw a picture and then it all came back to me.

As we got older we used to go to Grandma's to earn money. Grandma didn't pay by the hour though. No, she paid by the shelf. The funny little things that Grandma would do. She had a certain price for each shelf we dusted. And all her shelves were littered with little knick knacks. Stuff like happy meal toys. Grandma kept everything until the day she died, she just couldn't seem to part with any of her stuff for some reason.

Grandpa was born with a strange disability. For some reason Grandpa couldn't read. Pretty much the only thing he could spell was his name. No one could ever figure it out. His graduated high school and from what I've heard he still holds track/football records to this day. He also graduated college in agriculture, Mt. Sac and got awards for his cattle. His family had money, so much the city of Yorba Linda is named after his step mother and Kraemer Blvd is named after him. They used to own the land where Disney Land and Anaheim Stadium are. So anyways they had money and they tried to get him help but he just couldn't read. His also had a hard time with names. For the first 8 years or so of my life my name was "boy". I remember the first time he remembered my name and after that I was no longer "boy". My sister Chris was always Grandpa's favorite for some reason but I don't know if he even knew her name when she was a kid. He would call her "whistle". I have no idea why but that was his name for her.

When we were kids we used to go to Grandma's house a lot. As we got older we stopped going over there, I think because of the clutter, and she came over to my parents house a lot more. My whole life growing up my dad and I would always go up to Grandpa's ranch. He called it his ranch, although technically it's an orchard. We used to go fishing up there, hike up the canyon and catch newts, we had scout campouts up there, it was our favorite place to go. There was great views of the city lights from up there too. I'll talk more on the ranch in another blog. My next trip to California I'll be going there for a visit.

But one story, one my 18th birthday I woke up and decided I was an adult. I went up to 711 and bought a lotto ticket and then I went and bought a shotgun. I was going to go to the desert with a friend but his parents decided not to let him go last minute. So I don't remember why but the next day my dad was at home instead of work and he decided to take me shooting up at Grandpa's ranch. So we went up there and shot some tiles at the reservoir. An important step into manhood! I also spent a lot of time shooting my .22 up at Grandpa's by the old whore house, more on that later. Anyways the point is I spend a lot of my childhood up at Grandpa's ranch. Around the same time I got Grandma's secret recipe for beef jerky I had a date with this crazy, physco Mexican girl. I took her up to Grandpa's to go fishing. Well even though Grandpa wasn't blood he was nothing but Grandpa to us. My dad's father was never around until right before his death so we never knew him. My mom's father died when we were seven and I can only remember meeting him a couple times. But Grandpa Ed was always there so he was Grandpa. So anyways I'm on this date and Grandpa pulls up in his Jeep and I introduce physco to Grandpa and she says "Nice to meet you. I can see where Joe gets his rugged good looks from." Grandpa turned red as a beet and he starts going "no no no".

Well I can say I'm glad that I had grandparents when I grew up. A lot of kids don't get to know their grandparents. My grandparents actually made it to be great greatparents and every one of my nieces and nephews got to enjoy them. I'm sad about the fact that Adriana will not get to meet my grandparents. I thought for sure that at least my first child would get to meet her great grandparents but it looks like that opportunity was missed by just a couple short months. The holidays won't be the same without Grandma's cooking. Most of my family are great cooks but no one can compete with Grandma. We always looked forward to the holidays with my mom's family more than my dad's as a kid simply because the food was better. It still will be, but it's not going to be the same as when Grandma was there. Thanksgiving and SuperBowl were the days of feasting in our house. And for Christmas Grandma and my mom would always make lots of deserts and homemade candies.

A video I took of Grandma a couple months after her stroke. This was on Easter, I think in 2006. I was trying to get Grandma to talk to the camera and my mom was trying to get her to say "peter piper" whatever that thing is and it sounded like she said pecker. So I told my grandma to say pecker and without hesistation grandma says pecker. LOL.