grandmother | grandmother
May.09.2013
Note: I wrote the essay below almost two decades ago, at the beginning of my life as a writer. It is collected in my first book Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora which won a Pen Award in 2006, and is anthologized widely over the years. A popular assignment...
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Jan.17.2013
(My older brother Tony and me at 3 1/2 and 2 years old, respectively)
Last night we received some very unsettling news: My Dad's sister, Alberta, had passed away.
There are very few times in my life that I can recall seeing my Dad visibly shaken. After all, this is a man who faced the horrors of...
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Dec.08.2012
http://rochellejewelshapiro.com/this-is-my-bubbie-my-russian-grandma-from-whom-i-inherited-my-psychic-gift/
My Russian grandmother from whom I inherited my psychic gift.
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Oct.12.2012
A memory rises from my grandmother’s kitchen. I saw a little bird outside, through the sliding glass door. I pointed and said, “mira, un pájaro.” My grandmother scolded me in the nicest way and even made me laugh. “No! No es pah-ha-doh. Se dice pájaro” (“No! It’s not pah-ha-doh. You say pájaro”),...
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Jul.18.2012
When I was young, around nine, my mother and I moved back to New York to take care of my grandmother. She was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I don't really have many memories of her that are not in a house dress, or gansey as she called it. She had a mastectomy and back in those...
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Jul.04.2012
My last blog was about likeable versus unlikeable characters in fiction and a comment I received about it prompted me to ponder a related issue...and story.
The issue is writing about family members directly and the sensitivity associated with it. My general practice is to avoid writing about...
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Mar.18.2012
My grandmother had nerves of steel. I used to joke that if anyone were ever to tell her that there was about to be a nuclear attack, she would curl her lips over her teeth in that way that she did when considering options. Then she would say, “In that case, we needn’t lock the...
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Dec.02.2011
Our first grandchild christened me Nana when he was twenty months old. He also decided RJ’s grandfatherly name would be Pop-pop. He ignored our strong suggestions of G’Pa and G’Ma. (RJ was under the influence of hillbilly rap.)
We’re proud of our grandson. He was more advanced at age two than we...
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Nov.28.2011
There has always been a spiritual home inside of me, and at times, it may have grown dark and cold, but mostly a light was always left on because of my grandmother. When I was "finding" myself in my late teenage years, I rejected aspects of my Catholic upbringing. This struggle would continue as I...
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Sep.24.2011
As I drove down the “Pilgrims’ Highway” south of Boston to Plymouth on Sunday, 26 October 2008, the day which had begun with such heavy mist it dripped down my windshield gave way to patchy sun; and on either side of the highway, as I motored over the wooded hills, were walls of autumn foliage...
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