Story 2: Chocolates and Red

When I was young, my grandmother was on a quest against refined sugar. She feared developing diabetes in her old age, and so she used honey instead of sugar and raisins instead of chocolate chips.

She kept this up until somewhere around the time that Grandpa's Alzheimers got worse and he went into a home. Somehow, she decided that life was too short and she embraced her love of Oh Henry bars and all things chocolate. By the time she moved in with my parents, we had learned one simple rule about buying presents for Grandma: she didn't want any more possessions (especially while she was giving so many of her things away), but she would always welcome a box of chocolates. This Christmas, my brother and his girlfriend bought my Grandma a big box of chocolates. She kept forgetting who gave them to her, and so my Mom attached a big note on the lid that said, in big black letters, "Michael and Nicole." She wheeled that box around on her walker, offering people chocolate and telling them that her grandson gave her them: "Such a big box! So generous!"

As she aged, my grandmother started admitting many of her hidden loves beyond just chocolate. She also started letting everyone know that her favourite colour was red. I first learned the extent of it when I was in North Battleford for a girls' weekend (back when Ky lived there) and had dyed my hair bright red. I'd never done anything like that before and was nervous about what my grandma would say when she saw it at church.

I was surprised by her reaction: "I love it! I always wanted the courage to dye my hair red! I even bought red hair dye once but never went through with it." After that, it seemed like she was always talking about her love of the colour red, and her previous reservations about it. She'd always wanted to buy a red coat but hadn't had the courage. She loved Janice's car best because it was red.

I think that was my favourite part of my grandmother's aging process.