OLIVA

Let me tell you about the BEST Grandma in the world -- my Grandma, Oliva. No, no, don't worry, you are reading it correctly, there is no "i" missing. She is quite possibly the only Oliva on the planet. You know what she does that I love? She has this great Pittsburgh accent. So while you and I may go "down town", Oliva (and quite possibly most of Washington, Allegheny, and Garrett counties) go "don-ton". I adore that accent.

For a long time, to distinguish her from my other Grandma, we used to call her "Doodle Grandma". My grandparents had a dog named "Doodles". It's funny, when my sister was expecting, my mom went through a mini-crisis -- she wasn't ready to be called "Grandma". So, we went through the list of possible names. My nephew, Zac, calls her "Ginny Gram". Do you know what he calls Grandma? If you have read my other blog updates, then you know the saga of how she took my cat, Boodie, in for me for a few years. So, yup you guessed it, "Grandma" is affectionately called "Boodie Gram" by Zac.

Grandma and I were quite the traveling duo in the mid 80s. She would generously take me along with her on her (mostly senior citizen) bus trips across North America. One even lasted 28 days and covered most of Canada, reaching Expo '86, and returning through several National Parks through the US.

She has been volunteering at the Carmelite Chapel in the Bergen Mall in New Jersey FOREVER. Seriously, I don't recall how long it's been, but there were many hours I spent in the chapel gift shop, dusting or taking statues back to the priest to have them blessed (side note, every time I got something blessed, the priest would bless me, too -- I felt soooooo holy by the end of the afternoon!) Leave it to New Jersey to design a mall so that you can shop and pray -- I love my home state.

I'll have to scan some pictures of the lovely Oliva from her youth in the Steel City -- what a tall glass of water! My favorite story involves her first job at the T-bury gum factory (I think I got that right.) I think she was around 15 and she and her friends were having a contest to see how many sticks of gum they could fit into their mouths. Needless to say, the boss walked in and they were all fired.

Even though she didn't have to, Oliva liked working. She liked having her own money because, let's face it, she liked buying herself finer things and my Grandpa was kind of cheap. So, she worked all throughout my mom and her brother's childhood. My Grandpa used to sing a song to her (and anyone who would listen) to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree." It went like this "Oh LEEVIA I Love -E -AH, I'll never LEAV-E-AH, Oh LEEVIA. Your face is white, your hair is brown, you know I'll never mess around. Oh LEEVIA I Love-E-AH, I'll never LEAV-E-AH Oh LEEVIA." She could type (or should I say pound the keys) faster than anyone I know. I have her original "Oliver" type writer at home, sitting on her refinished typewriting desk. I have now discovered the lineage in which my distaste for cooking resides -- I don't do it, my mom doesn't like to cook, and as it turns out, Oliva doesn't like to cook either (and yet my sister loves to and is an awesome chef, what gives?)

Oliva, Grandma, Boodie Gram -- I LOVE YOU!! Everyone in our family is so happy to have you in our lives!!