Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Thinking of grandmas passing brings sadness to me as it does everyone that is here, yet there are ways that we can always remember her. They say that the sense of smell is one of strongest senses that can make our memory recall something or in this case, someone. I can still remember the way grandpa Hathaway’s shop smelled like a mixture of oil, metal, and grain dust. For grandma, the smells that come to mind most often when thinking of her are, water, stuffing and money. Some people might think water? Water doesn’t have a smell, I know that water doesn’t really have a smell but you never had a bath on their farm with well water! The smell of the well water there was rather different than the water we got in the city. Grandma’s bathtub was always a thing of wonder, always fully stocked with water toys for her grandchildren. It was great to stay overnight there and look forward to a bath where we could play and play, just with that odd water smell that always had me puzzled. I told my mom that for me it was somehow poignant that grandma should pass on thanksgiving day, because I can still remember the smell of turkey dinner at her house on the farm and the wonderful stuffing that I fell in love with. No offence Mom but your turkey stuffing was nothing like the stuffing grandma used to make on those special occasions. I could not care less about the rest of the food, a turkey, potatoes or homemade pumpkin pie, grandma had better have made extra stuffing for me! The smell of the turkey cooking only made me think of what was waiting inside the bird for me. Now to the smell money. I don’t associate the smell of money with grandma because she was always generous to all her family or because of a some feeling of richness that could be associated with her life filled with friends and family spread all over the world but because of my first visit to their house in Lloydminister. This was back when grandpa was still with us and their house on the aptly named Alberta crescent . We arrived and settled into the house, the family spread out from sewing room to cots in the basement for the nights sleep. In the morning I woke up and had breakfast before getting ready later in the day to head to to co-op for lunch, I put my shoes on and went outside, the wind had shifted and the smell from the rape seed plant hit me like a quick punch in the nose, this smell I would be quickly told by mom, grandpa and grandma was the smell of money.
