I was thinking that I could do a talk at Edie's do. So I'd better get to work if it's going to happen.
Edie from her granddaughter's perspective
Edie was a great grandmother (as opposed to a great great grandmother, which is how she referred to herself after Emilie and Ellis were born). Why was she great? She had that quality that every great grandmother has - she spoiled Tracey and me rotten. When we lived in Colombia from 1978 to 1982, we used to come home in the summers - at the end of the summer, Edie would always take us back to Colombia shopping - this made the end of summer/back to school days not as bad as they otherwise would have been. Edie basically bought us anything we wanted - I think she got a lot of pleasure from seeing our very happy faces.
She spoiled us in a very fair way - whenever one of us got something from Edie, the other got something of equal value. Often we got the same thing, just in different colours - Tracey got blue, I got red. This continued to her departing wishes - there was a little blue and green trivet in the den that Edie had labelled Tracey on the underside and there was a red and brown trivet in the kitchen labelled Renee. These colour schemes have basically stuck with us for life. I think this fair way of doing things has been passed along to our dad Neil - whenever dad helps either of us out, he will set aside an equal amount of money to help the other sibling out too. This fairness has really influenced Tracey's and my relationship. We don't fight over things and neither of us harbour any feelings of jealousy towards each other- this is unusual in siblings as far as I know.
The other great grandma quality about Edie was that she never changed - kids like stability and constancy and if Edie was one thing, she was that - I've seen pictures of her when Tracey was a baby and her hair was the same. Her house was also the same - I will have very fond memories of sitting out on her patio in the summer have a cool drink in a metal cup. If the world was changing at a scary pace, at least you could rely on the fact that things were the same at Papa Jim's and Edie's house - it was very reassuring.
The other great thing about Edie was that she was a bit of a character. All my friends loved Edie and I think Edie liked being the star (just a little bit). She was always very put together (even at 93) and as Cyp says, she was also a bit quirky (she was of course, a scorpio). Cyp reminds me of the time she decided that our family would make a great circus family - she got up and did a little speech about each of our qualities that would make us the ideal travelling circus family (and no - it was not that we were all circus freaks). Unfortunately, I can't remember the qualities, and looking at us all now, I can't see a family that is less suited for the circus, but I do recall her spirited presentation was very convincing. Edie was a character and a great grandmother and I know both Tracey and I will miss her.
