My Grandmother.

Sadly, my paternal grandmother is no longer alive. Indeed, she was old even when I knew her, so I did not have as long as other people to get to know her (my younger brother had even less time). Nevertheless, she did have an influence on my life at an early age.

The incident that really encapsulates the influence my grandmother had occurred when I was in my mid teens. I had at that time, started writing poetry. I had even gone as far as to have some of my poems published. I recall my father and I visiting my grandmother and showing her the book with my poems in.

It was not clear or not whether she liked the poems but that was not the point (though I would have liked her to). It was her response that was to become an influence on my life. After having the poems read to her, her eyesight was perhaps not up to reading the print, her simple response was;

“Thank goodness one of us has enough sense to do something with their life.”

Although I have not gone on to write much poetry since, that response has stayed with me. It has been a remonder to me and a driver for me to try to achieve something in life;- a legacy or a body of work that could be of use to other people.