Poem: Grandma
Mar. 14th, 2016 03:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shiori_makibaby shiori_makiba
Word Count: 99 lines (624 words)
Inspired by ![[personal profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dialecticdreamer's observation about how few older female mentor-types and good crone figures are out there.
Set in Polychrome Heroics universe created by ysabetwordsmith.
“Grandma”
Esperanza Blanco was,
in many respects,
a stereotypical little old lady.
Her white hair was cut and permed in
that dandelion puff style that women
over eighty always seemed to have.
She wore brightly colored track suits
and white orthopedic shoes.
The track suits were because while
it was often hot and even more humid
in Florida's summers,
that was only outside.
Inside almost everyone had air conditioning
and most set their thermostat to seventy degrees.
Quite chilly if you had trouble staying warm.
The bright colors were
because Esperanza liked bright colors.
They made her feel happy when she wore them.
So she did.
One nice thing about being old was
how few damns she had to give
about certain things.
Like whether or not her clothes were fashionable.
Little old ladies were expected to dress outlandishly.
They were also expected to be obsessed
with their children and grandchildren.
Esperanza wouldn't call herself obsessed
but she was proud of them and didn't mind telling folks so.
All of them.
Even the ones that weren't biologically hers.
Because one of the less typical things
about Esperanza was that she was soup.
Not one of the flashier,
or more powerful soups.
She was a crayon soup.
Snow white hair since puberty.
And that was it.
But while she wasn't super strong or super fast,
Esperanza was open-minded, a good listener,
and willing to learn new things.
She got certified in medical first aid
and kept up her training.
Because you always needed someone
willing to help the injured.
When she found classes for emotional first aid,
she took those too.
Because sometimes being injured doesn't mean
you are physically bleeding.
She supported the formation of SPOON
because Whammy Lass was right.
Soups needed support,
needed to know that they weren't alone.
That not everyone was going to reject them
for having pink hair or being able to dead lift a truck.
Esperanza still volunteered with SPOON
even through she didn't agree with
how much they pushed young soups
into cape work.
Yes, community service was important
but it didn't really mean anything if you didn't want to do it.
Not everyone was suited for donning a cape,
white, black or otherwise.
Esperanza didn't discriminate.
She didn't care if you wore the
white cape, black cape, gray cape or no cape at all.
If you needed help and
she could provide it, it was yours.
That help might be just a listening ear.
It was sad just how many people were out there
who had no one who would simply listen to them.
It might be a safe place to sleep
and a couple of home-cooked meals.
After all, she had the room
and she liked to cook.
She couldn't do as much
of the cooking or cleaning as she used to
but the kids and grand-kids,
as she liked to refer to them,
irrespective of anyone's actual age,
were more than willing to pick up the slack.
Some of the kids lived with her.
Some were just regular visitors.
Sometimes very regular,
showing up at least once a week.
Others were only here occasionally.
Even when they weren't here, many of them
wrote to her or sent messages or packages.
Mostly letting her know they were alright.
Because she worried when she didn't hear from them.
The packages contained stuff she needed for the house.
Like food, extra blankets and clothes, money, and offers of favors.
She didn't ask for it.
But was happy to get it.
She'd hate to turn someone away
because there wasn't enough food.
She was called Grandma
in every language with the word by the kids.
She did her best to be the best grandma
in the world.
NOTES:
Grandma (Esperanza Blanco): She is a crayon soup who has opened her home to those in need. While primarily interested in helping her fellow soups, her door is open to anyone in need. She has been doing this since the early days of SPOON. She refers to the people who stay with her, either permanently or just visiting, as her children and grandchildren. The majority of the “kids” happily call her Grandma (and sometimes Mama for the older ones). Esperanza lives in Central Florida, in a small town outside of Tampa. She speaks fluent Spanish as well as English but has learned the words for Grandmother and Mother in several languages via her kids.
Origin: With the onset of puberty, her black hair turned snow white. She lucked out in having a supportive family but a good friend wasn't so lucky. Her parents opened their house to this friend. In connecting with the early SPOON, she discovered many soups in her friend's position end up killing themselves or were utterly homeless because they had nowhere to go and almost no one willing to help them. She decided that had to stop. If they needed somewhere to stay, her door was open.
Physical Description: Esperanza's ancestry is Cuban and Puetro Rican, thus a combination of the Native Islander, European Spanish, and African. Her skin is a dark medium tone, she stands five feet three inches tall. She has been described as “pleasantly plump.” Her hair was originally black but turned snow white with the onset of puberty. Her eyes are still very dark brown.
Powers and Abilities: Average (0) Crayon Soup
Qualities: Expert (+6) EFA, Good (+2) First Aid, Good (+2) Listener, Good (+2) Open-Minded, Good (+2) Generosity
Weakness: Poor (-2) Not So Young Anymore
Yay!
Date: 2016-03-14 09:04 am (UTC)Re: Yay!
Date: 2016-03-14 09:28 am (UTC)Thanks.
>>I really enjoyed seeing how she works on making the world a better place.>>
I'm glad it works.
We have a shortage of characters like this in media. And a woeful shortage of people like this in real life. I can't fix the latter but I can fix the former.
Re: Yay!
Date: 2016-03-14 09:45 am (UTC)Sadly so.
>> I can't fix the latter but I can fix the former. <<
I feel the same way. That's why I write a lot of what I do. :D It's nice to have company.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-14 12:19 pm (UTC)Psst. I think maybe you mentally hiccuped a bit on this line:
It might be a place to safe place to sleep
no subject
Date: 2016-03-14 09:33 pm (UTC)That's what I thought. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
>>Psst. I think maybe you mentally hiccuped a bit on this line:>>
Corrected.
Thanks for pointing out the goof. Dyslexia, even mild dyslexia, means that even when I check and re-check mistakes like that get past me because my brain doesn't register them as wrong.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-14 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-14 02:25 pm (UTC)Chuckling at Grandma's haircut. My granny always wore hers like that, too.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-14 09:35 pm (UTC)My grandma doesn't have the perm yet but my mom is in the local Women's Club and many of the members are retirees. And most of them have that haircut. Also it's one of the things I remember about a kind next-door neighbor of ours when I was little kid.
LOVE this
Date: 2016-03-14 06:40 pm (UTC)Re: LOVE this
Date: 2016-03-14 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 01:34 am (UTC)• and willing to learn
tonew things.→ to learn new things
• She got certified in medical first aid
and keep up her training.
→ and kept up
• She didn't care if you wear the
white cape,
→ if you wore
• Some of kids lived with her.
→ Some of the kids
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 01:52 am (UTC)I'm glad. I'm so happy that everyone seems to like her.
Re: Errors
Fixed.
It might be hard to believe sometimes but I do proofread these before posting them. But dyslexia means sometimes mistakes like these simply don't register as incorrect when I look at it. Not saying there aren't mistakes - just it can be akin to asking someone who is blue-green color blind to pick out the blue ball in the green balls.
Which is why having another pair of eyes is so nice. :)
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 03:00 am (UTC)Oh, I know. It's basic. I do editing for other people and a local newspaper, and I always reread the doc after my first edit, and I almost always find things that I missed the first time through.
. http://X-Clacks-Overhead.dw/GNU-Terry_Pratchett . http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 11:04 am (UTC)One of my grandmas wore her hair in the exact cut you're talking about! I wonder why in the world it's so common...
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 08:45 pm (UTC)Thank you. I'm glad people are liking her. :)
>>One of my grandmas wore her hair in the exact cut you're talking about! I wonder why in the world it's so common...>>
I think because it's easy to take care of. Wash and rinse, dry, and style each only take a few minutes.
I know several older women who between arthritis and fibromyalgia cannot, for example, blow-dry their hair for longer than five minutes before it becomes too painful to keep their arms up.