Son,

Your Grandma is a character. She is aging and has lost some of her height. When she was in her thirties she was almost five foot tall, but not quite. As she ages she is getting shorter. There were seven children in my family, my father worked two jobs outside the home and my mother stayed home and did the hard work. I remember her working, doing dishes, laundry, cooking – and almost always singing while she worked.

She did not have a dish washer, so she washed dishes at the kitchen sink three times a day. Her washing machine was the old wringer-washer type. She stirred the clothes with a ‘half-a-broom’ stick, lifted the clothes out of the water draped on the stick, and fed the clothes in a double wringer to get most of the moisture out. There was no dryer so she hung the clothes on a line to dry.

I can remember her standing at the kitchen sink, or at the wash machine, singing. She did not have to know all of the words of a song to find her way through the tune. She would sing, “…You are my sunshine, my only doo dee doo. You make me happy, doo doo dee doo…”

I know when I am feeling well – I find myself humming the doo doo song of my youth.

Dad