My grandma Mollie taught me by example – never talked about being old, or in pain with her bursitis, which never stopped her from cooking for the whole family for high holy days, or taking me shopping for clothes or making me and my grandpa lunch every day when I worked for him in the Bronx at Hunts Point.
I think I saw her in pants twice… and she looked so elegant with her tapered, light colored, slacks and foo-foo mule shoes…I can still hear them yippy yapping against her feet as she pranced across the Miami hotel’s shiny waxed floor. We were on vacation there.
In this picture, in 1972, you can see… this outfit is a product of going shopping with my grandmother who was always more up on fashion than I was. No, your eyes are not deceiving you, I was the quintessential poster child for all things 70’s – hot pink velvet hot pant, leather fringe belt, white go go boots and pink puckered shirt… I must have been trying to get the whole fashion thing together in just that one day. My grandmother is the one standing next to me in the red checkered dress… not sure how me and dad wound up being colored coordinated… but there it is.
In this picture of my grandparents, taken in 1993 in my apartment in Manhattan, more than 20 years later, you can see that she is still vibrant and stylish… and the last time I saw my grandmother, at age 92, she was wearing a red suit, silk scarf, Italian made shoes and bag to match, not to mention her coordinating jewelry.
The only thing grandma Mollie ever mentioned to me about aging was when she said, “Robbie dahling, you always need to use a very emollient face cream.” She told me this… when I was 20.
What’s a story you remember about your grandmother?
