Vairea Houston

Week Two Journal Entry

My Oma used to live in a little apartment tucked in behind a side street leading off of the main downtown area of Bainbridge Island. It was called Finch Place.  It was small, with very few apartments, mostly consisting of elderly people. Most of the tenants had balconies covered in hanging flower pots or little figurines. My grandmother’s place was on the second floor and I distinctly remember waiting in the car outside looking up at her balcony window, waiting for my mom while she went to go get her.  I remember walking into her apartment. It always had a distinct smell of curry or sambal hot sauce. Her little living room consisted of an old flower printed couch she had had for who knows how long. A small table beside it was covered in a white lace doily that always held her TV remote. The TV itself almost always had her favorite channel on, wrestling.  Inside her bedroom she had simple white bed sheets and a pink stuffed animal cat lay perfectly in between the pillows, a cat that now sits in my room. 

My Oma was always up to going anywhere. She loved when we’d call her and ask her to go to the mall, even walking around with us while we grocery shopped.  But she really loved when we were all together as a family. We used to have such big celebrations, every holiday was celebrated with so much food and laughter. We’d all crowd around my Aunt’s dining room table during Thanksgiving, passing along all the fixings to a major feast. I remember jumping into the arms of my Uncle Bobby when he’d come to visit on special occasions after having been working on a cruise ship for the last several months. Uncle Rio would be the one making inappropriate jokes at the table and playing games with the younger cousins. Aunt Arisa and I were talking about the latest book she had read. My mom and Aunt Kerrie were usually gossiping in the kitchen while preparing the food for everyone. Oma would be sitting in the center of the table, smiling at all of us together. 

Those are distant memories to me now. Several years later Oma was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and that’s when the family celebrations became fewer and fewer as her disease pressed on.