Independent lady

My grandma (the recent widow) proclaimed this past weekend, "Well, I think your grandfather thought he was going to live forever. Look at all these address labels!" And she proceeded to show off a box full of thousands of address labels with variations of his name, her name, their names. I'm not surprised - at his age, he got a lot of mail. Besides, he was a charitable man, which always results in bazillions of labels from the various organizations. And he was thrifty - no sense in buying labels for $2.99.

Later on that day, my grandma sat at the kitchen table and used a black pen to cross out the "Mr." and first name of my grandfather so she can recycle the labels with just her name on them. Apparently, she learned a thing or two about being thrifty from my grandfather.

In addition to taking charge with the address labels, Grandma also is giving away a few things that belonged to my grandfather, like his clothes. My dad came home the proud owner of a new belt, a copper planter pot from the garage, and a variety of other items he doesn't need. Unfortunately, my father did not snag the 1970s zipper shirts that I was so fond of, but he did score an Old Spice gift set that someone left at the hospital for my grandfather right around Christmas. We never knew who left the gift set, but it was missing the deodorant sample. All other sample items were intact (cologne, aftershave, lotion, cleanser), but someone apparently removed the Old Spice deodorant and passed the gift set along to a sick old man in the hospital. It was very sweet that someone thought to bringing my grandfather a gift while he was sick, even if they did keep the deodorant for themselves.

But the fact that my dad brought it home is twisted.