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I only knew her as GRANDMA.

But she had a life before I ever met her…as an obedient daughter, loving sister, impressionable girl, new bride and mother of five. 

She was a woman of character and strength.  She was ahead of her time in many ways and I thought she was an angel with super-powers.  But “Curtains for Dinner” shows that she was a normal human being, just like any of us…and sometimes she made questionable choices.

As a young woman, my grandmother lived in an era where most wives stayed home and the husband went to work and controlled the family finances.  Every week, she would be given a certain amount of money for the household expenses…whatever her husband determined would be enough…if she was a frugal homemaker.   And, just like today, it was hard to make the money stretch to buy the staples she needed.  One day, on her way to the butcher shop to buy meat for dinner, my grandmother passed a fabric store.  Hanging in the store window was the most beautiful piece of lace material and my grandmother knew she had to have it for her kitchen window…to help make her house a more beautiful home.  Opening the door, she entered a world of colors and textures…but her eyes were only on the lace in the window.  A small scrap of paper pinned to the fabric displayed the cost…25 cents.  Reaching her hand into the neckline of her dress, she unpinned the folded handkerchief that held her precious household money.  Carefully she opened the scrap of fabric and looked at its contents…only 50 cents, the amount needed to purchase enough meat for dinner that night.  What should she do?  How could she pass up that beautiful piece of lace?  But what would she do about dinner?

Making her decision, she took one of the quarters, approached the store clerk and indicated her choice.  Emerging from the fabric store, the parcel of lace clutched tightly in her hands, my grandmother continued down the street to the butcher’s shop.  Now she only had enough money for half as much meat.  Purchasing the meat, she watched as the butcher wrapped it…what a tiny package it made! 

Sitting down to dinner in the kitchen with the new lace curtains fluttering in the breeze, her husband noticed that there was only one place set.  “Aren’t you eating, my dear.” he asked.   “Oh no,” my grandmother replied.  “I was so hungry, I ate my portion earlier.”

My grandmother might have gone to bed with her stomach a little empty…but her desire to beautify her home was well-satisfied.

Did she make the right choice?  What would you have done?

Stop by tomorrow for the last installment of The Grandma Chronicles: Where Are the Side-Mirrors on the New Car?  I’ll also share a recipe, from my new parenting book. for apple cake just like the one I used to make with her those long-ago Sunday mornings.