Grandmother’s Words

Summary

The web content describes a poet's admiration and inspiration drawn from the author's grandmother, Elizabeth, who published her nonfiction book at the age of 90.

Abstract

The author reflects on the impact of their grandmother's late-life publishing success, expressing a desire to emulate her achievement. Despite a six-year delay in pursuing writing, the author feels their grandmother's presence and guidance. The poem captures a conversation with the grandmother, who encouraged the author not to wait to write. The grandmother's dedication to researching her father's immigration story and her own journey to the Netherlands are highlighted, as is her influence on the author's work. The author's first book was published posthumously and is dedicated to the strength and memory of both grandmothers.

Opinions

The author expresses a profound respect for their grandmother's determination and accomplishments.
The grandmother is seen as a source of enduring inspiration, with her encouragement to the author to pursue writing without delay.
The author feels a connection to their grandmother through writing, believing she continues to listen and influence their work.
The dedication in the author's first book is a testament to the grandmothers' strength and the lasting impact they had on the author's life.
The author hints at a potential future work that would delve deeper into the grandmother's life and legacy.

A poem about writing & family

Photo taken by author. My great grandfather is in the front, with his cheek on his fist.

“Sixty years,” I told her when she published her debut at age ninety. “I have sixty years to catch up to you.”

She laughed and told me, “Don’t wait.” Even so, I delayed six years not sixty to follow in her footsteps, her inspiration outlasting her.

I wish I had one more day to tell her what I learned in the interim. But she is still listening, I think — regardless.

My grandmother Elizabeth (my father’s mother) was an amazing woman, and she self-published her nonfiction book at age 90 (pictured above). She’d spent over a decade researching the subject matter, which was about her father immigrating to Canada from the Netherlands. While she knew a bit of Dutch, she taught herself a bit more (although she had someone else translate her father’s letters back home, which are used in her book), and even traveled to the Netherlands with several of her siblings to “follow in her father’s footsteps” when he was a young man.

This poem is taken from a conversation I had with her a couple years before she passed away. While we always talked about writing, she never read my first book, which was published after she passed. The dedication in it reads: “To my grandmothers — the strongest women I’ve ever known. I miss you.”

While there’s much more to my grandmother’s story and I might someday write it, she’s popped up in my poetry more than once… and she probably will again.