ONE FINAL GIFT
Scatter me not to the restless winds
Nor toss my ashes to the sea.
Remember now those years gone by
When loving gifts I gave to thee.
Remember now the happy times
The family ties are shared.
Don’t leave my resting place unmarked
As though you never cared.
Deny me not one final gift
For all who came to see.
A simple lasting proof that says
I loved and you loved me.
(by D.H.Cramer)
Not many days pass that I don’t think of my grandmother. I’ve always considered her a kind of matriarch for the maternal side of my family. Geraldine Anna May Hart Furnia was a slight woman, but her size was quite deceiving because underneath that smallish frame was tremendous strength and courage.
She was born on December 20, 1920. Her young life was hard as I’ve been told. She married my grandfather, Paul Furnia who was six years older, when she was sixteen. She married young so she could get out of an abusive family situation. I never learned what went on though. Life with my grandfather wasn’t much better, but she loved him and the family they made together. Early in the marriage they had four children; then World War II began and he enlisted in the Army and spent part of the war up in Alaska (Kodiak Island). She was left to care for the four children in a home that wasn’t much more than a shack. After the war, three more children were born; one of them my mother. Grandfather became a logger which he worked till his retirement at the age 67.
They bought a house on Grove Rd next to the Ausable River. For many years, they grew their own food and didn’t have plumbing until my mother was a girl. They still lived in the same house while I grew up.
I spent much of my childhood with my grandmother. I often considered her my surrogate mother as my own worked full-time. They didn’t have daycare centers during the seventies so family members or friends were often the ones called upon to help watch me (and eventually my brother and sister).
Most of my fondest memories as a girl involved my grandmother.
She was a great storyteller and a self-taught musician. I literally spent countless hours listening to tales of the past or to the tunes of the banjo or accordion.
She was a devout Catholic and would take me to the Saturday mass each week.
She loved spending time outdoors tending to her large garden, or filling buckets of juicy blueberries.
Most of all, she loved having her house full of family members. No matter how scattered her children or grandchildren were, we always found our way back to her house a few times a year for huge gatherings. Storytelling, music and games were the highlights, and each time she was the center of them all.
She was the magnet that kept drawing us back, the glue that bonded us close together, and the heart that continued to beat in all of us while we were apart.
It was heartbreaking to see her pass away on February 22, 1988. She was only sixty-seven. Her body gave out long before her spirit wanted to let go. Emphysema may have claimed her life, but the memories of her will always live on. Even though we don’t gather together as often as a family, we will always be linked no matter where we are because her heart still beats within us.
