A girl only seventeen years of age has already lost so many priceless memories. She can only recall little fragments of her time spent with her grandma. She had been told many stories about her larrikin of a grandma. Grandma was always referred to as Granny. Her most recent memory of her is not the most pleasant. She was in a care elderly home. She had dementia.
The girl can remember her first ride on a quad bike with her father, as Granny and Poppy, sat on the balcony and watched on. It was a thrilling experience, the wind was blowing through her hair, whipping her in the face. She was eight at the time. She can remember her first ever ride on a horse, it was after helping the family with a muster. Mr Austin Williams, an old family friend, offered her a ride, she hesitantly agreed but there was excitement hidden in her voice. She loved feeling the horse under her as it walked along, feeling every movement the horse made. She realized why Granny loved horses so much. She was nine at the time.
The girl remembers little of going to the greyhound races with her sister and Granny, but she knows the she has been through photos of the three of them. She and her sister had big smiles on their faces in the photograph at the finish line. She looked only six at the time. Her sister and herself always loved to to help Granny walk and feed the greyhounds whenever they were visiting, up until she left for the home for the old people. Granny had vibrant red hair back in her day much like the young girl, she never got to see it but she wish she had. Granny was the jokester of the family, always cracking jokes making her laugh the loudest she ever has.
When the girl first showed interest in photography she learned that Granny also had a love for it. Her father showed her Granny's camera. It was grey and old. She wasn't sure she'd be actually able to use it or if it even worked. She found another connection between herself and Granny. She was fifteen at the time. Everytime the girl visited Granny and Poppy, she always was treated to a cup of cordial and two Arnotts biscuits. They always sat on the old couch on the balcony, although, not everyone could fit so sometimes she would lean on the railing or sit on the ground or on her mother or father's lap. From the balcony they had a good view of the farm and part of the golf course across the street. She was told the golf balls always used to land on the property, and Granny used to collected them to use as also she had a love for playing golf.
She was told Granny played many sports from golf to tennis to hockey. She was also told that Granny and Poppy met through the local squash club. She also had a love for racing horses and greyhounds. She was told that Granny at a young age rode her horse to a race to compete by herself. It was a days ride and she left the horse there, catching the train home, then coming back a day or two later to race. Granny 'coached' her two sons, her father and uncle, in soccer and was known as one the most supportive and aggressive mother on the side of the field.
She lost Granny for the first time when she was eleven. She was too young to understand fully what was going on, so she hadn't known she had lost her yet until she grew up. Her visits to the aged care home became less frequent over the years until she hardly went at all. She always left the home with tears brimming in her eyes, not that she'd let anyone see. She lost her the second time when she moved on from the world, she didn't know how to react or feel, she felt numb. She went to school as normal. She did everything like normal, the reality hadn't set in yet, she still felt like she was just at the home, but she knew it wasn't true, she can't go and visit her anymore.
That girl was me. There was a beautiful ceremony for Granny. I met more of the family I haven't met before, all of them saying I got my red hair from her. I learned new things about her that I never knew but will always remember. I wished that I had visited more, made more memories, learned about her past from herself. But I realised too late that I have to cherish the memories I have, and to take any chance I have to make new memories. My memories are now the stories I have learned from others about Granny. But there will always be a part of Granny within me.
