My grandmother McGhee lived her entire life in the Hudson River valley of downstate New York. She was a young mother in the Great Depression, a farm wife, a high school English teacher, a gardener, canner, cook, needle pointer and housekeeper extraordinaire, and the kind of grandmother who always shook her head sadly at my standard DQ order of a small vanilla cone. Oh Alison, she would say sorrowfully, that tiny little cone? Are you sure you don’t want a sundae instead?
She was a big woman, ashamed of her heavy legs, and she never danced, except alone, in her kitchen, to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. I know this because of the times (unbeknownst to her) that I witnessed her, standing in place, swaying ever so slightly from side to side, one hand moving in the air to the music, which she loved. When she died, at ninety, I dropped to my knees and made a sound that my children –who were tiny at the time–still remember.
Bach and My Father, by Paul Zimmer
Six days a week my father sold shoes
to support our family through depression and war,
nursed his wife through years of Parkinson’s,
loved nominal cigars, manhattans, long jokes,
never kissed me, but always shook my hand.
Once he came to visit me when a Brandenburg
was on the stereo. He listened with care—
brisk melodies, symmetry, civility, and passion.
When it finished, he asked to hear it again,
moving his right hand in time. He would have
risen to dance if he had known how.
“Beautiful,” he said when it was done,
my father, who’d never heard a Brandenburg.
Eighty years old, bent, and scuffed all over,
just in time he said, “That’s beautiful.”
Click here for more information about Paul Zimmer.
alisonmcghee.com
Alison McGhee 
Both …..so beautiful today! Thinking of my Dad on his birthday. He would be 103 years. He was mostly the disciplinarian and bread winner but when he smiled……..oh it melted my heart!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so glad you have those memories of him!
LikeLike
Beautiful
LikeLiked by 1 person
So, so beautiful
LikeLiked by 1 person
This poem went straight to my heart.
LikeLike
Oh my. Tears …….
LikeLike
Love you.
LikeLike
Music – DQ – Memories
The poem & your memory
Beautiful
Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I still order a small vanilla cone, Jinx. Sometimes I splurge and get it dipped. xo
LikeLike
Beloved Alison McGhee
Thank You for a glorious poem and sheer beauty.
*It mirrors where I am in life. Which I am sharing above…
In love, with love, for love
Shamla of Shamballa*
LikeLike