She understood me when no one else could
She also taught me how not to waste food
She taught me new words, and how to pronounce them
She taught me sexagesimal counting
She taught me the correct grammar
And it was never ‘Nan’ or ‘Gran’ – only ‘Grandma’
She taught me how to make shortcrust pastry
She taught me that there’s no time like the present, yet not to be hasty,
She taught me the names of different flowers, like lily and lavender She made the flowers grow because of love and her
Love for nature and foreign lands
Always fiddling with something in her hands
In Africa, playing tennis in the heat
While Grandad was, in a sense, on the beat.
Her Geordie ‘oohs’ and Geordie ‘eehs’ made us laugh;
her funny insistence on ‘bath’ and not ‘barth’
She actually taught me how to make a fire
She sang and danced and even joined a choir
“Everyone rules their kitchen differently”, she once said
A valuable lesson in respect, and how to tread
She still, and will, always inspire me, oh how,
because she told me “never delay –
do what you want to do now!”
because she was diagnosed with RA
before she could go rambling after she retired
Her open minded acceptance was something we all admired
nstead, she travelled with magazines and books
Although we always joked how long it took…
For us to say goodbye, aye
When we sat in silence the other day,
I think I heard her gently say, “Tatty-bye”.