112 Letters Home: Saturday, August 12, 1944

Great-Grandma Shannon is having a bad spell. Grandma speaks honestly about her caregiving skills, and I know the repercussions of her statement.

"I wish I was there to take care of you, but I suppose I wouldn't be much of a help if I am anything like I used to be. Remember the time you had indigestion and I asked you, in the worst part of your pains, if you had a stroke and it made you laugh and it hurt you all the more? My, I was certainly a help, wasn't I?

Although she was not a natural caregiver, her humor often carried the family through. There was always laughter in the Robinson household, even if it was the bitterest of times.

Grandma and Grandpa are now trying to plan their wedding! They want to wait until the war is over so they can have a proper wedding, but I think the signs are there for them to make the commitment much sooner. Even if all Grandma could concentrate on was a mosquito.

"Bud and I went over to the Luthern Service Center the other night, and there was a soldier and his girl that were going to be married and they didn't have anyone to stand up with them so we stood up with them. All during the ceremony a mosquito was eating a way at me till I thought I was going to die -- I didn't want to move around and was it ever awful!"

Part of the process is Grandma's conversion to Lutheranism. I think the first thing to correct is Grandma's noun for the followers of Lutheranism. She calls them Lutherns. I love it! She also talks about my two Great Aunts: Aunt Thelma and Aunt Charlotte. It's odd to see her write about them as if she was an outsider. They were always so present in our visits to St. Louis. They were like my Grandma's own sisters and not just Sister-in-Laws.

"Bud has two sisters. One is married and has a baby boy around a year old. His other sister is 19 and is going to be married in February to a boy who is going to be a Luthern pastor. She also plays the organ at church. I went to church with Bud yesterday. I think he expects me to become a Luthern. I suppose I will, but I don't know yet whether I want to or not. I guess I had better, because he is a devout Luthern and it might cause trouble between us later in life."

This passage is so much my Grandmother that it makes me giggle. She always knew how to make me giggle.