String and Other Things
By Loretta Gillespie
One day not long before she died , we were gathered around Granny ’ s kitchen table . She mentioned something about being up in the attic . Jaws dropped and forks paused in mid-air . She hadn ’ t been up those stairs in years . Afraid she would fall and break a hip or worse , my mother and aunts had ordered her to stay off the stairs . “ Mother , what do you mean , going up those stairs ?” my mom exclaimed , frightened at the thought of what a fall would have done to Granny , now in her mid-eighties . Granny calmly replied , “ I just wanted to see my things one more time .” She explained that by sitting down on the last step she ’ d bounced on her bottom all the way up , and the same process brought her safely back down . I can just see her touching her belongings , remembering where she wore each dress , finding precious knick-knacks long forgotten , leafing through old copies of ‘ Progressive Farmer ’ and ‘ The Saturday Evening Post ,’ and going through plastic bags filled with fabric scraps she ’ d saved for quilts .
That ’ s why I try to pack everything away so neatly , not knowing when my own kids will ban me from going up there . They ’ ll say the same thing , “ Mother , you can ’ t be climbing those flimsy old stairs ! You ’ ll fall and break something !” Still , when that time finally comes , just like her , I ’ ll probably sneak up there to see ‘ my things ’ just one more time .
Loretta Y . Gillespie is a freelance writer and columnist whose work appears regularly in several publications . She has been a contributing writer for several magazines and is a published book author . Loretta lives in Moulton , Alabama with her husband Danny . You can find her on facebook and at gillespiegardens . blogspot . com