‘NO NEED FOR SIGHT WHEN YOU HAVE VISION’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY LEX GILLETTE
NOT JUST FOR A DAY
CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE TO OUR MOTHERS & GRANDMOTHERS During this month, we recognize and celebrate all the amazing mothers. There are so many special moms on this planet, and believe me, each one deserves more than just 24 hours of recognition. Do you have any special mommy memories that come to mind? I’m talking about those times when your mom made you smile? A time when she went above and beyond for you? How about those times when mom would make your favorite meal?
Listen, if you want to talk about food, imagine this. It’s been a long day of school. You even had practice after school. Band practice, track practice, any type of practice. You come home to an aroma filled home. That intoxicating scent of crispy golden fried chicken, with a piping hot serving of Mac and cheese, a healthy dose of green beans, and to top it all off, a piece of cornbread. And not just any cornbread, the corner piece. The piece that has a very subtle buttery tasting, crunchy edge. Sheesh, I’m making myself hungry.
Moms are incredible.
But today I want to shed light on another mom. My grandma.
Back in a little North Carolina country town lives my grandma. The type of town that maybe has two stoplights, one grocery store, a couple gas stations, and a rooster for an alarm clock. She lives in the type of town where everyone knows each other. My grandma lives in a small house with a big back yard, but although the home was small, she helped me to birth some big dreams.
“I see him. He’s doing just fine.” My grandma is special.
At a time when most people expected blindness to hold me back, she expected a different outcome.
I spent many days floundering around in her backyard, doing flips and cartwheels. I’d bet you my pants always had grass stains on them. We would spend New Year’s Eve together, waiting for the clock to hit midnight. My grandma would have the fireworks ready once the time hit 12:00 on the dot. I’d sit on the front porch as screeches and loud pops filled the air. And food? I’d put my grandma’s cooking up against anybody’s! You’ll never go hungry at her house.
The biggest thing that she did for me was eliminate barriers that the world attempted to plant in my mind.
“That boy is out there flipping upside down.”
My grandma’s response, “I see him. He’s doing just fine.”
“Goodness gracious, you gonna let him jump off of the porch like that?” My grandma’s response. “He ain’t doing anything wrong. Everything is just fine.” Talk about a guardian angel. There were windows on all sides of the home which meant that my grandma had a direct line of sight to all of the locations where I played. And get this, she would even come outside and play right along with me, and she’d fuel my imagination along the way. After torrential down pours, we’d be outside with imaginary fishing rods, catching the biggest fish in the sea.
15 AWARENOW / THE MAYDAY EDITION
www.IamAwareNow.com