in lieu of WIP

I have a funny story instead. I work in cube land. In my office, you tend to get to know those people in the cubicles near you. One of my cubicle neighbors once mentioned that her husband grew up in Salt Lake City, and based on what I perceived her age to be, I extrapolated that there was a decent chance that her husband may have gone to high school with one of my parents (since between mom and dad, they have two of the four high schools of SLC covered [at the time]). Well, it turns out that cube-neighbor's-husband went to one of the other high schools -- where my grandmother taught English. At our office holiday party last weekend, I asked him if he rembembered having a teacher named Mrs. S, and he stepped back and said yes, the name was very familiar. I told him that she was my grandmother. He laughed and said that thinking about it that way made him feel old, and I tried to comfort him by pointing out that she would have been 100 years old next year. Cube-neighbor reported back to me yesterday that over the weekend, they had asked her husband's sister (who attended the same school) if she remembered Mrs. S, and she did! She said that the students in her class had given Mrs. S such a hard time that Mrs. S would get so upset, she'd have to leave the classroom to calm down before continuing with the lesson.

I recounted this story to Eric last night, and he asked me if that sounded right to me. I realized that I only knew my grandmother as a grandmother, and not as a woman. She passed away when I was a naïve 15 years old, and while I have strong memories of her, I can't say I knew her well. Nevertheless, I have a hunch that the story is accurate. A warm and loving woman, I don't think my grandmother was a sugary sweet sort of person, and even if she had to step out of the classroom to breathe a little, I bet she held her own against a class of high schoolers.

Edited to add: My mom emailed me today, saying "You are right about her...not sugary sweet. And not one to let any little snot noses run her class. But she was one of my favorite people and I miss her." I miss her too.