I spent the day cleaning and shopping and then a couple of exercise periods which brought me to 24,625 steps on my FitBit. I really do like this FitBit. The extras provide me with an interesting look at my sleep apnea and my tendency to be rather hyperactive. At nearly 75, I probably never dreamt that I would be so active now although my maternal grandmother was a very active person who loved to walk. She walked several miles every day just for the joy of walking. Her father had been injured during the First Boer War and she did talk about him walking with a cane and having a limp. He always sounded like a fascinating person as he used to work at two jobs every day making a pleasant life for his family but he died of pneumonia leaving them orphaned as his wife had died two years earlier of pneumonia. It was not hard to locate her parents on the census or in the grave yard where they were both buried in Birmingham. Finding their death registrations also proved to be very straight forward as I knew the year when each one of them died. It must have been sad to lose parents when you are 11 and 14 years of age but she never actually showed the effects of that great loss. She seemed to just stride through life and I always tried to be like her. Just move on and do the best that you can.
A wonderful woman and I felt her loss deeply when I was just twenty one years old and married for just over half of a year. It was a profound loss in my early adulthood which kept me pretty close to her memory for a long time. It was a time when I really learned to love solitude when I was alone as I could feel her around me and in my soul. It was a good feeling actually.
Now I am the old one with the arthritis which she suffered with although she didn't give in. She just kept walking and gardening and cleaning and keeping as active as she could. It was good advice that I took to heart when my time with arthritis arrived.
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