Short Story About Age And Wisdom

by BuddhistPunk

Posted to Stories on 2002-04-05 05:04:00

She’s ninety years old my Gran. We had a right big shindig in her honour about four weeks ago. The whole clan was there, of course coming from a family as large as mine you tend not to know half of your relations. She had fifteen kids my Gran, she got married at the age of sixteen, to a man who just happened to be older than her father. Seems crazy now doesn’t it but apparently it was all the rage back then.
I watched her intently at the party. She looked gloriously self satisfied. There were over one hundred and twenty people at this shindig, and she was the mighty tree from which all these seeds fell.
Yeah she’s ninety years old. She still takes a wee whiskey now and again, purely for medicinal purposes you must understand. She walked around meeting everybody, joking with everybody, giving out to most. Normal behaviour for a woman of her vast age.
Most of my extended family passed themselves, kiss on the cheek, gentle hug, sharing a joke. I wanted to really talk to her. I’d never had this sense of urgency about my Gran before. It was as if I realised only then that this wonder of a woman was not going to be around for much longer, God forbid that anything should happen to her but you know, nature, taxes, death.
I wanted to tap into her brain, I’m certain she has a wealth of knowledge and wisdom most of us will never attain. Ninety years on the planet, you must pick up a few tricks. I’m sure its all in there I just can’t figure out how to get at it. Sometimes while we speak, we often speak as we live quiet close, I catch this glimpse in her eye, like she knows I’m probing. Like she knows I’m not acting or asking questions that her other grand children ask, I know it and she knows it.
I’ve haven’t had many chances to speak in private with her of late, I’ve been working abroad for the most part, only coming back for a day or two. But the one chance we did have we took full advantage of.
The stories she told, about her youth, about my grand father whom I had never met, about life in Ireland during the two world wars. Only snippets mind, but pointers to what’s in there, signposts to her past.
I will get more out of her, I know she enjoys it, ninety years old and she can still play men along, even if I am only her grandson.


The Literary Kicks message boards were active from 2001 to 2004.