Assignment #6: The elderly

This past weekend, my family and I visited my Grandma up in Nevada. I had recently done an interview with her for my Anthropology class over the phone, but as we went up I remembered I could do another interview for this class since I would be spending a couple days with her. During most of our visit we simply talked, went out to eat, and caught up. We don't see her often so it's always nice when we do. When I had told her about the interview for this class, she sounded excited. For the most part, we only talked about the basics and even covered most of the same things we did during the first interview, just with more commentary on her part. First off, my Grandma's name is Maryanne Dale. Her birthday is December 4th 1935. She is only 77, I could not get anyone over the age of 80 to do this interview. (just about all of the older people I know cannot recall their earlier years). She grew up in San Diego and lived there up until her retirement in 1990. Her mom was a stay at home mom, and her dad was a meat cutter. She graduated high school and went on to Mercy College in 1953. She graduated with a diploma in nursing in 1956. She then went on the say that she had gotten her diploma three years after graduation because when she went to school, they went eleven months out of the year. After passing her state boards, she began working as a labor and delivery nurse at Grossmont Hostpial making two dollars an hour! Crazy, I know! We then got a little bit off topic and she told me how during high school, she had worked at the national dollar store and got paid 75 cents an hour! Even weired, she would be paid 50 cents an hour for babysitting in high school. Funny how times have changed, right? Anyways, she got married later that year to Kenneth Joseph, and then had four children (Carlton, Kevin, Laurie, and Holly) from 1957 to 1961 while still working part-time as a nurse. She then got divorced in 1972, and at that time she switched to becoming a nurse in the emergency room. She had mentioned how that was the best change she has ever made. She loved the E.R. and all that came along with it. Up to this day, her and her co-workers from the E.R. have a luncheon/reunion each year to catch up. Years later, she reconnected with her old high school sweetheart, Terry Dale. They married in 1982. In 1990 she retired from a job that she loved doing. Later on, she moved to Nevada and built a house. She then, on a whim, worked for the contractor who was building their house (he had asked her to). I am not sure what she did for him, she never really specified. We then continued to talk about her life in terms of family ( But I won't bore you with that!), and I found that interesting, for I love hearing about  old relatives I never had the chance to meet. Afterwards, she had said that she loved telling her grandchildren about her life and she's so happy that she has the chance to do that. The difference it made on her was just the fact that she was so happy. She was saying how she is so blessed because she has lived so long, long enough to know her grandchildren and some great-grandchildren. Unfortunately, my Dad's Dad and her first husband died from a heart attack in 1978, so this rings very true for my family. I loved this assignment because it's always amazing to see that while you love and think you know your family members, it's not until you really sit down and talk with them that you learn so much about them.