For my Grandmother on her 90th Birthday

Happy Birthday Queen Elizabeth

Today June 27th my grandmother Elizabeth Christine Steyn turns 90!!! I cannot think of a bigger blessing than reaching the age of 90.

Jane Fonda reckons if you assume you’ll live to 90 that means your life is broken up into 3 perfect acts, everything after 90 is the encore. My grandmother is at the start of her encore years and I feel incredibly privileged to bear witness to this.

My grandmother has always been in my eyes a tall, stately woman with perfectly blow-dried grey hair , I wont lie there were times she was scary, this tall formidable woman who doesn’t talk much and has this air of mystery about her. My grandmother has 9 grandchildren and we are a loud and rambunctious lot when we are together, it always makes me giggle that she has to do an almost type of roll call when trying to admonish one of us “Tasha!…oh I mean Tarryn, I mean Annie” she still does this and it makes my heart smile every single time.

I look at her hands, filled with lines of various depths and lengths, hands that tell her story. Hands that helped her siblings do household chores as kids, hands that caught and threw a netball in various tournaments, hands that held hands while being courted, hands that shone with diamonds and gold on a wedding day, hands that have held 4 children, 9 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren, hands that gave out candy to grandchildren every Sunday from the secret candy jar, hands that taught me to make the perfect cup of tea (no milk, 1 and a half sugars), hands that make preserves from fruit they helped to grow, hands that have buried a husband and 2 sons, hands that soothed me in my darkest grief despite those hands being in their own, hands that have loved and cared for us, hands that have folded in prayer everyday, hands that now sit back and enjoy their well earned golden years.

My grandmother is stoically silent and becoming more so the older she gets, I watch her sitting at the head of our family table on Christmas day or Sunday lunches and I often wonder what she’s thinking. Does she look out at us her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and think “ look at this…I made all this” I hope she does and I hope it fills her with a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Happy Birthday Ma! You have weathered every season with grace, we are so lucky to have you and learn from you. We celebrate you today and everyday! Long may you reign!

With love always

Taz

xoxo