Sep. 28, 2011: Grandma’s laugh

Growing up, I had two wonderful grandmothers: Beatrice Travis-Ridings or “Granny Bea,” who passed away just a few months before Amelia was born in 2001… and Eileen Darnell-Houser or “Grandma Bam,” who left us in 2009. Back in 2010, I wrote about Granny Bea, and this post on Grandma Bam is long overdue.

My life has been keeping me very busy lately. Outside of my daily activities focused on taking excellent care of my family and clients, free time has been extremely scarce. This week, my father celebrated his 70th birthday — and with my stepmom, their 36th wedding anniversary — while my big bro arrived at birthday number 48. As I thought about things I could do in their honor, I remembered the video interview I did with Grandma Bam back in 2004, and decided to share some of its contents with them and our other friends and familymembers on Facebook.

UCF professor Tom Morgan told my class about a video interview he had shot of his parents before they passed away, while also encouraging us to interview special people in our own lives while we could. I took his advice and interviewed Granny Bea at her home in 1989 with a borrowed camcorder, but sadly, I still can’t find that 8mm videotape.

I interviewed Grandma Bam near the Thanksgiving holiday in 2004, while Beth entertained our children and visited with Grandpa Doe, our stepgrandfather. Since Grandma passed away more than two years ago, I’ve missed her a lot; she was always there and ready to laugh and carry on, even on sad occasions. Also, her love for me, my wife and my kids was always abundantly clear.

Beneath her joviality and lightheartedness, Grandma’s inner strength was forged through too many horrific hardships and difficulties she faced in her 91 years. In our conversation, she touched a bit on one of those, while mainly expressing her positive spin I so admire, and sharing her beautiful laughter and wisdom.

If anyone is interested in receiving a set of the 31 questions I organized for this interview, please let me know by commenting or sending a direct message.

For Grandma’s kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews, copies of the full interview are available. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the video above which allows you to experience her famous laugh, and some of her philosophy, yourself… and the photos that show how much she loved our family and treasured the times we spent together.