Thursday, August 11, 1983

The Jimplicute, Scott City, MO 63754

Dear Editor

I always read a chapter from the Bible to my grandmother each day when she came to visit with us.  She was at this time nearly eighty years old and nearly blind.  She loved to hear the scriptures.  It made me feel very proud when she asked me to read to her from the Bible.  Sometimes she would choose the chapters for me to read and sometimes she would make the selection.  Most of the chapters she chose were long and being ten years old I was eager to go outdoors and play as soon as possible.  Usually, I would suggest the sixth chapter of Ephesians to be read as it was short.  My grandmother would agree and did not seem to notice that I read the chapter quite often.  Maybe she did notice but found it amusing that I read the chapter so often.  I learned to love reading the Bible from her.

My grandmother entertained the children in the family with stories and news of our relatives she had seen lately.  My younger brother would climb up into her lap and ask for a story.  She asked him what kind of story he would like to hear and he would always answer more “bear” stories.  When my grandmother began to praise a grandson (my cousin) I would feel jealous.  I remember her one time I spoke up and told her that I had heard him say a bad word.  Grandmother looked at me and said, “Now what bad word did you ever hear him say?”  I felt very solemn, as I repeated the word, “dam.”  Then she smiled and said, “Why that is not a bad word.  Don't you know a dam is a bank of dirt used to hold back high water?”  I was disappointed that I had made no headway in putting him down in her opinion.  My mother in the next room had heard the whole conversation and she laughed heartily at my embarrassment.  My grandmother laughed the most because she felt like she had won a case in court.

 Sincerely, Edna Drexler