Driving Miss Velma

With the fall season right on us, this time of the year is a reflection time of people who have impacted our lives and whose memories we hold on to including my father-in-law, my grandmother and my husband's grandmother, Granny.  I wrote this piece in 2002 after the last Christmas she shared with us.  I hope you enjoy...

If you have ever seen the movie “Driving Miss Daisy,” you can’t help but smile when you think of the title character, the southern way she carried herself and her interactions with those who assisted her. This past Christmas I had the opportunity to drive our own “Miss Daisy.” She is my husband’s 85 year-old (don’t let her know I told her age!), truly deep southern Georgia belle, grandmother, Mrs. Velma Welch. She is called affectionately “Granny” by everyone. She was visiting from Dublin, Georgia during the holidays. There is so much my children and I can glean from this charming lady. She carries herself with such dignity and grace. She always has matching “ear-bobs”, necklace, lipstick and teased hair, that only her “hairdresser” in Georgia can make stay for more than one day. Spending time with her at my in-laws and on Christmas day in our home, helps us to capture an era that is slowly disappearing. Our most enjoyable time, however, is the day that I pick her up with the children and we take Granny out for a ride, hence “Driving Miss Velma.” We stop at a local shipping store to take advantage of their colored copier that amazes Granny. But it’s not the machinery that captures her attention. It’s the enjoyment she experiences by talking to everyone she encounters. The people we “happened” to cross paths with that day had no idea that an old southern lady would take such an interest in all of their affairs. I sometimes found myself embarrassed that she held hostage the clerk discussing her life with him and asking him all about himself. Looking back at it, however, I envy her ability to engage anyone in conversation. Her pace is slow and she takes the time to look people in the eye. I was amazed that people responded back revealing details in their lives that I would have never taken the time to find out about the person. Have we “progressed” so much in the past 50 years that amidst our cell phones, computers and other gadgets, we have truly forgotten how to converse with each other? With all of the inventions since Granny was young, you would think that we would have more time on our hands to be interested in other people and build relationships; but in reality our lives are more cluttered with more details and more things to accomplish, with little time for being interested in a store clerk, much less our own neighbor. There’s much to learn from driving Miss Velma around that day. My children too learn to slow down and be gentle around Granny. They learn not to bump her while she’s walking and they learn to assist her when she walks up our deck stairs. In fact, her presence draws out respect and grace from my usual rough-housing children that I didn’t know existed. May all of us learn to glean from our precious “seasoned” citizens those attributes that need to be preserved throughout all generations.