My first childhood memory

“Don't you wish you could take a single childhood memory and blow it up into a bubble and live inside it forever?”

- Sarah Addison Allen "Lost Lake"

 Brenda over at

A Cozy Little House Blog

features Java Talk.

It's a place where you can strike a conversation with

many people, from many places about a particular subject

that Brenda posts about on Wednesday.

This week Brenda asked her readers to discuss

Your First Childhood Memory.

I have always known what my first memory was.

It was of my Granddad.

There he is on the left with my Father,

His first born son.

He was a lead and zinc miner.

A tough man,

with 10 kids to feed and support,

and very little education.
He arrived home from the hospital in a taxi,
refusing treatment because he said the food was bad.
He had discharged himself from the
hospital against doctors orders
and he refused to return.

He died of Tuberculosis

when I was only 3 years old.

and

he loved candy.

And so did I!

We were on the sunporch and 
I was sitting on the edge of his bed. 
I remember the color

of the bedspread - tan plaid with a
thin red stripe running through it.
He was laughing and telling me funny stories.

He was very ill,

and he knew he was going to die soon
but I didn't know.
At the age of three you can't
comprehend death.

He had a little brown paper sack

full of penny candy

and

he shared it with me.

I can remember feeling so safe, so secure,

so loved, and so yummy in my tummy,

eating candy with my Granddad's full attention!

So here I am at age 3.

As life goes...

I am feeling great after my neck surgery 4 weeks ago. I feel no pain at all. I do have minimal movement in my neck, from left to right and even less when I move front to back.  I am so relieved to have the pain and limited control in my right hand 

so much better! I will say the surgery was a big success!