GC Mother’s Day Message: Grandma’s Baby, Mama’s Maybe

Those were some of the good things. There were some bad things too, which is why I have an incredible wealth of memories of my grandmother, Irene or Gaga as I called her.

I kid you not, when things were the absolute worst between my mother and me, Gaga Irene could make things better. I bless the day I realized that my biological mother only gave birth to me so I could have Gaga and she could have me.

Ask my friends, I always say, “Family does not have to get us, they only have to get us where we’re going.” My mother got me where I needed to go and that was to Gaga’s house.

My grandmother was a young grandmother. I’m the result of a teenage pregnancy in an era where those were not acceptable. My mother had to drop out of traditional high school and when she gave birth to me it was in the Salvation Army hospital in the section for unwed mothers. Moreover, I don’t know my father, to this day; I only know his first name …

At any rate, when I moved from the middle-class neighborhood where my mother lived to my grandparents’ home in the ’hood, I thought I struck it rich and not in a materialistic way – in an emotional and spiritual way. I was finally living in a home full-time with a man and woman who loved one another and who rarely argued and who were pretty quiet and peaceful folks – folks who minded their business and who even shared whatever they had with people in need. It took a while before I could believe that I was settled finally and that I would not be sent away, but when I settled in, I didn’t want to leave. I loved being with my grandparents.

Gaga’s influence over me was amazing. It wasn’t until she died that I understood the impact she had on me and my ways. Neither of us was fond of housework, preferring to read, shop or do something ‘more interesting.’ She loved to cook and bake and I loved to eat. Most of what I know about quality clothing, I learned from her. Gaga’s laugh was quirky as is mine. She loved to dance about too, which is probably where my mother got it.