My Grandmother, Wilma Swainston Bright

My grandmother turned 98 on May 30th. We had a party for her at her assisted living facility in Bountiful. It was fun, especially because I got to spend time with my mom and aunts and see cousins I haven't seen in dog's years. (How sad that I haven't seen most of these people since Grandma's 90th birthday party and I haven't seen most of my Hawaii-based cousins since my cousin Suzie's wedding, like, 30 years ago.)

Some of my memories and thoughts about my grandma:

She worked at JCPenney's for years and years. She has a commemorative watch from them with a little golden ruler on it. That used to be a Penney's theme--the Golden Rule.

Mom would take us to Penneys for Pixie Pin-Up studio photos. My grandma would pull the proofs out of the trash so that my mom could have pictures for free.

She's a very frugal lady, my grandma. She's so known for her frugality in our family that my second-cousin, Ashley, commented on a blog post that something wasn't quite "Grandma Bright frugal" (or words to that effect). I could totally understand what she meant by that. My cousin David apparently got this trait from her. I did not.

Grandma is great with her hands and is an amazing quilter, crocheter and cook. She made the best mince pie, chocolate chip pancakes and sour cream chocolate cookies.

When I was in high school, we would go on temple trips to the Idaho Falls temple. I was very surprised as we drove up to the temple one day to see her sitting on a bench with a box of my favorite sour cream chocolate cookies. She drove all the way up from Pocatello to give them to me, because she knew how much I loved them.

Grandma was always an avid temple goer. She would go up to IF from Poky at least once a week with some friends and do temple work all day long. She said once, "Sometimes as a treat, (my friend) and I sneak up to the temple a second time without the other girls knowing."

She's very close to her sisters. When they were growing up, they were known as "The Swainston Boys" because they were always into things.

Grandpa died of a heart attack at 48, leaving my grandma a widow at 49 with four of her five girls at home. She never remarried. I'm not sure if it's because she is a very independent person by nature or if she just loved Grandpa so much she couldn't imagine being with anyone else. Or maybe she just didn't want to be bothered. I have never asked her about that, and I think she might be offended if I did.

I think that Grandma was still driving into her early 90's. (Mom, aunts, cousins--can you corroborate that?). Once she bought a male mannequin from a department store that was going out of business. She also bought some clothing for him and sat him in the passenger seat of her car so that people wouldn't think that she was a lone woman driver and try to assault her. She named the mannequin Cy after the owner of the store.

She has a Cache Valley accent. One time, my sisters and I cracked up because she said, "I was barn on a form and I have to have my butter." She wasn't really pleased that we giggled at her.

I can't say that I'm close to my grandma, but I do love her very much and appreciate her example of independence and love of temple work. I know that she loves me, too.