Neuer Gedankengang!

My Grandma's feet

I've been thinking a lot about my Grandma's feet. Actually it is her shoes I remember more than her feet, as I doubt if I ever saw her barefooted. I inherited my general build, including large feet, from Grandma Sticht, and I remember her when fifty or sixty years of farm and house work had left her with bunions on both feet. Her shoes would always stretch to accommodate the bunions, leaving a bulge like a ping pong ball on the big-toe side of each foot.



I think of that now because, unless I choose at some point in the next year or so to have foot surgery, my shoes will look like that also. Shoes that were very comfortable when I bought them last spring are beginning to pinch across the wide part of my feet where the bunions are. I bought a new pair of sandals for the summer and ordered ones with straps I thought would just go around the bunions. And they sort of do - there's only one problem. Sometimes I have to wear socks with sandals (I know, that says something about me!), and these sandals are a variety of thong! Sort of hard to wear socks with the strap that comes between my toes!



Why, you may be wondering, is she going on and on about bunions? There is a connection. When I look one direction, having bunions reminds me of my grandmother. And it's good to think about what she meant in my life. I think I could live another 50 years and not work as hard in my whole life as she did! However much the bunions hurt her feet, she still worked hard.



And when I look in the other direction, having bunions reminds me of my granddaughter! Today the standard solution for bunions is to have surgery, and I might some day - but NOT until after I travel to visit Lily O'Brien! I can put up with a lot of discomfort for the sake of being able to make that trip.



The date of the trip has been changed to August 1, as the family will be moving from London to Dublin in late June, when I originally had my trip planned. So Lily will be three and a half months old when I meet her in person. Today she is four weeks old.



This Mothers' Day I am a daughter (I guess technically I am still a granddaughter, although neither of my grandmothers is still living) and a mother and a grandmother! And that is pretty exciting! So Happy Mothers Day to my mother and also to the mother of my granddaughter!


I can't resist including a picture to show off her dark blue eyes!

posted by Shirley Schuette @ 4:13 PM