In his lasts days, my grandpa was aware of some things and always asked about them. For me, it was the cuatro I was making. The day before his death, he asked if I had finished. Actually, that was the day I recorded it's sound test. It's a shame he never got to listen to it. But I bet he would've liked it.
The second thing, and this has to do a lot with the nature of us both: food. There are many banana and plantain trees in the house. There are other related fruits. The trees look almost the same. Some are taller and other really short. There was a banana tree which had bore fruit. And every day I went to the house, he asked me to go and see the fruits and tell him about the development of these. He had also stated that those were my bananas. I think it's because there are certain fruit trees in the house associated to specific members of the family.
Well, this is something my grandpa didn't have time to see. But grandma was aware it was soon to be ripe. On Tuesday, I went there to keep her company for the morning and one of the first things she told was to cut the bunch. I didn't know bananas become ripe after they are cut from the tree.
So, I used a saw and cut the bunch from the stem. Then, I counted the hands. This one produced 5 hands, which is an average number for this species. As you can see these are short bananas. Here in Venezuela we call it apple banana because its flavor is kind of similar to an apple.
After grandma saw the bunch, she got told where to cut to separate the hands. I cut them and then hanged them in the designated place for the bananas in that house, which has been the same for ages. There's a picture from my childhood which related to the spot. I was plotting how to get bananas and in the next picture I'm down and reaching up to them. The funny part? I moved a chair try this. But I was too short and couldn't reach them. I think it was my grandpa who look at me doing that and took a banana from there and gave it to me.
Here you can see how the bananas are changing color just moment after they were hung. It is an interesting thing to see. And of course it makes you feel eager to get one and eat it.
I hanged 3 hands there and grandma told me to take 2 home. But here we don't have a place to hang them. So I had to make my own spot and improvise this banana hook. I found some rope and used a piece of hard wood I had laying around and these are the results:
Today, I went again there. I saw grandma doing better. She's been sad. I mean you don't live more than 60 years with the same person and suddenly stop feeling something when that person is gone. She has told me she doesn't find strength to do things. She barely eats, but she's aware she has to do stuff because life goes on. I have helped her with gardening, cooking and other things.
However, today was special. It's been a long time since I last saw my grandma walk without a cane. She started to use one because grandpa used to fall a lot and she was the one who had to help him get up. She's small and grandpa was heavy, so you can guess why she started using aid to walk. But now she doesn't have to do that anymore. And truth be told, my grandmother is made of steel or maybe adamantium -if you're a comic book fan, you know what I mean. She's strong like really strong. I have seen her kill chicken with a karate chop (which is frightening). So, this time without grandpa, has helped her heal a little bit from that heavy load of work.
She was ecstatic to see me today. "Mijo, let's go and taste the bananas!" And we went to get some bananas to see if they were ripe. They were delicious. And she even ate 2. That's great! She hasn't had too much appetite lately, so I'm glad to see her eating.
Memories of my grandma and I are usually of her cooking. But this was a moment connecting both things I used to do with them. When I visited, we usually had time to sit down to eat bananas. I would go and get them. Bring them to they rocking chairs were they would be sitting. And we would talk about the flavor of the fruit. Then, a story about the city, fishing, my great-grandfather, a relative or a trip would come up. I think she took 2 because of how used she was of carrying something for her and him. I wonder what she was thinking in this moment...
