My Grandmother on My Mother’s Side
My Grandmother on my mother’s side was of Indian origin. Neither her or my Grandfather on the Mother’s side came from money and in fact they were very poor. I learned more from my Grandparents on my Mother side, as opposed to my Grandparents on my Father’s side. They came from money and when they needed something they simply just buy it. But when my Grandparents on my Mother side wanted something they either go without, make due with what they have or use their hands and make it (tun yu ann, mek fashion). My Grandparents on my Mother side, were the most imaginative and innovative people I have ever met. If you put them in the middle of a barren desert they would have it growing food in the matter of months.
These days whenever I need to solve a problem or going through hard times, it is My Grandparents on my Mother side who I draw strength from. To be honest when I was younger I never really appreciated her but now, not a month goes by without them running across my mind and often with a smile. Remembering some incident or some solution to a problem they faced. My love of the land came from her, she could make anything grow and my desire to simplify my life came from her.
My Grandmother on my Mother side was very religious but her religious beliefs at the time confused me. She was member of the Anglican Church and she did not miss any services, even if she must wake up early and walk to church. She also believed in something darker, I am not going to say Obeah but I still cannot put my hands on what it was, some sort of Revivalist Pocomania. Also if she only had 10 dollars to her name, she would send Oral Roberts 5 dollars out of it. One-time Oral Roberts sent her a key saying it was blessed and when life got too hard she held that key or if anyone was sick she gave them the key to hold.
I was very sickly as a young child but My Grandmother on my Mother side would never take me to the doctors. Instead she preferred Oral Roberts key and to take me to a lady who everyone called Maddah (mother). I must have been 6 or 7 when I first experience Maddah’s medicine.
You see every time I was sick, my Grandmother often said it was evil spirit or the ghost of my dead mother, her own daughter, who was trying to take her youngest child to the grave with her and as such no book learning doctor can fix that. So, I was taken down the lane to Maddah who spoke some crazy words, gave me a bath in warm water filled with “Blue”, (that thing they used to do laundry), with various spices, various herbs and bushes and ugli fruit/ “cibble?” orange. Rubbed me down with oils and Kananga water, wrapped in leaves and smoked my 6 or 7-year-old self, over a coal stove, while they read passages from the bible and said funny worlds. After the entire process was over I was given cream soda to drink and my choice of candy. I believe my current position on religion stems from being traumatized by this ritual as a young child. The harder life gets the more people need something to believe in.
My family on my father’s side owned a lot of property and one such property was a tenement yard. In that yard was a tenant who refused to pay rent and refuse to move out. My father got so fed up with the situation that he went to talk to My Grandparents on my Mother side about it and she promised to pay the yard a visit. My Grandmother got to the yard in question at around 5:00 AM in the morning. On her head she was wearing one of her underwear and being mostly Indian had a puff of hair coming out of each leg hole.
She walked around the yard singing, “the hotter the battle, the sweater the victory” then light a fire at the 4 corners of the yard, placed a bottle of cream soda on a rock, danced around it 12 time before she picked up a rock and smashed the bottle to pieces. By 7:00 AM the tenant who did not want to pay rent began moving his stuff, by himself onto the sidewalk and by the end of the day even the paying tenants, ...moved out!
Up to this day, sitting down with family and talking about my Grandmother brings laughter to tears.
My Grandmother on my Mother side was very religious but her religious beliefs at the time confused me. She was member of the Anglican Church and she did not miss any services, even if she must wake up early and walk to church. She also believed in something darker, I am not going to say Obeah but I still cannot put my hands on what it was, some sort of Revivalist Pocomania. Also if she only had 10 dollars to her name, she would send Oral Roberts 5 dollars out of it. One-time Oral Roberts sent her a key saying it was blessed and when life got too hard she held that key or if anyone was sick she gave them the key to hold.
I was very sickly as a young child but My Grandmother on my Mother side would never take me to the doctors. Instead she preferred Oral Roberts key and to take me to a lady who everyone called Maddah (mother). I must have been 6 or 7 when I first experience Maddah’s medicine.
You see every time I was sick, my Grandmother often said it was evil spirit or the ghost of my dead mother, her own daughter, who was trying to take her youngest child to the grave with her and as such no book learning doctor can fix that. So, I was taken down the lane to Maddah who spoke some crazy words, gave me a bath in warm water filled with “Blue”, (that thing they used to do laundry), with various spices, various herbs and bushes and ugli fruit/ “cibble?” orange. Rubbed me down with oils and Kananga water, wrapped in leaves and smoked my 6 or 7-year-old self, over a coal stove, while they read passages from the bible and said funny worlds. After the entire process was over I was given cream soda to drink and my choice of candy. I believe my current position on religion stems from being traumatized by this ritual as a young child. The harder life gets the more people need something to believe in.
My family on my father’s side owned a lot of property and one such property was a tenement yard. In that yard was a tenant who refused to pay rent and refuse to move out. My father got so fed up with the situation that he went to talk to My Grandparents on my Mother side about it and she promised to pay the yard a visit. My Grandmother got to the yard in question at around 5:00 AM in the morning. On her head she was wearing one of her underwear and being mostly Indian had a puff of hair coming out of each leg hole.
She walked around the yard singing, “the hotter the battle, the sweater the victory” then light a fire at the 4 corners of the yard, placed a bottle of cream soda on a rock, danced around it 12 time before she picked up a rock and smashed the bottle to pieces. By 7:00 AM the tenant who did not want to pay rent began moving his stuff, by himself onto the sidewalk and by the end of the day even the paying tenants, ...moved out!
Up to this day, sitting down with family and talking about my Grandmother brings laughter to tears.
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