Covid-19: Grandma-hood

Photo credit: Ben Pelhan

The reality

Arriving in London to meet my grandbaby, I’m quarantining for 10 days. My daughter and son-in-law bring the baby to the sidewalk so we can meet through a window. Unfortunately, my window is on the top floor. (“Savta” is Hebrew for “Grandma.”)

 The social

These times will be documented in history when my grandbaby and I meet with such physical distance between us! In the 1930s, my Mom from the age of 5 to 10 visited her dad from the sidewalk as he waved through a window in the TB sanatorium.

 The soul

With my mom gone shortly before my grandbaby is born, she’s not here to teach me how to be a grandma. Figuring it out on my own, I chop out a square at the top of the Grandma Block. Now, I need to slide myself down the slate to the next ledge. 

Best non-fiction read in 2016-2017

An uncommon soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864, edited by Lauren Cook Burgess. I read this book for the collection of letters written by a woman soldier who snuck into the Civil War as a man, which was apparently common for women looking to get paid for their work. As research for a series of one-act plays I’m writing that takes place during that time period, this book is very insightful for the culture as well as for how people talked.