Friday, May 21, 2010

Supersititions

Growing up my mom took us over to see my grandparents (on my dad's side) often. Her father died two weeks before I was born and her mother when I was 6 months old so I only really knew one set of grandparents and then my grandmother's parents, my great-grandparents, as well. My mom and Nana, as we called her, went out for breakfast all the time and after school we'd always stop by to play at her house. Nana died in March 1985, when I was 7.

When I was much older my grandmother would tell the story of the final driver's license my Nana received before her death. She went down to the DMV to have a new picture taken. When her license arrived in the mail in January there was no picture on the license. Apparently, my Nana took this as a type of superstitious premonition predicting that she wouldn't be around much longer, despite having no real health problems. She died of either a heart attack or stroke...at the moment I can't seem to recall....but unexpected nonetheless.

Anyway, I was cleaning out some drawers for my grandma the other day when I came across a bill fold that had a bunch of old credit cards and identification cards that all belonged to my great-grandparents. In the bunch was the infamous driver's license that lacked a picture. It was a rather eery feeling to know my Nana got this just a couple of months before dying and that she seemed to *know* her demise was imminent. My grandmother was just going to throw it away, so I kept it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is sad. I am so sorry this happened. Do you think you could cut out a picture of her and paste it on that license. I am certain i would have done that. It would make me sure of the fact that she is safe and well now. I hope you do it. Bless you.

Nancy said...

Yes, I think people "know" in some way. How odd that there was no picture on her license.
My father passed away 2 months ago. We thought he was doing so great healthwise but I think some how he knew his end was near and maybe wanted us to be happy for a few weeks in our time left with him instead of worrying?