Sunday, April 29, 2012

My great grandmother

I had the strangest dream last night about my great grandmother. We called her Memere (pronounced mem-may). She was 100 when she died. I was only 19. She lived with my grandmother who was my most favorite person in the world. In fact, she still is. She's the one that the medium said walked with me, I totally believe she does and it gives me such a huge sense of peace. Anyway, we're not talking about my grammie, but her mother in law, Memere.
Memere was 80 when my sister and I were born. There's a picture of us with Memere when we were about 2. We were outside, something I never saw her do, or at least when I was old enough to remember it. My sister and I were in our diapers, and a small plastic pool was in the background. Memere was sitting in an aluminum lawn chair, and we're on either side, leaning in.  I am sure that she must have been propped up out there so that my grandfather (her son) could get a picture of the toe headed twins, with their great grandmother.
She used a walker, and walked from her chair in the living room, to the bathroom, back to her chair, which is where she sat, pretty much for 2 decades.  My sister and I spent A LOT of time at my gram's house. Memere had lived with my grandparents for most of her life, and my grandmother did everything for her. She had a commode (her "potty") that she used every night, and that my grandmother cleaned every morning. I hated that thing! My gram would come through the living room with it and we would all hold our breath. There are certain smells that are so bad and so foul, that they leave a memory with you. You can actually smell them again just by imagining it. That shit bucket is one of those smells.  
In my dream last night, I was at my grandmother's house. I dream a lot about that house, and particularly of my grandmother. But last night, for the first time in maybe ever, I dreamt about Memere. Her bedroom was off of the living room. It was tiny. However, it seemed appropriate for a woman who was so small and frail. She needed very little,  she had a twin bed, a bureau, a nightstand, pictures of Jesus everywhere, holy water, and of course, her shit bucket.  The house was not as it usually is. My grandmother wasn't there, and it was cold and gray. Completely dreary. I was alone at this point, walking through the house looking for someone, for anyone really, and it occurred to me that we had forgotten about Memere. I ran to her room and flew the door open. I found her there, looking like her brain had taken a nap,  and oddly, covered in her own feces. She told me that the potty hadn't been emptied in ages and that I had better take care of it. It was overflowing and there was shit everywhere..ironically, it didn't smell. The nice minister type priest dude (who apparently I was having an "emotional affair" with, but were going to take it up a notch and cuddle)   picks up the shit bucket, covered in pooh, and all I can think is  "dude, we are not cuddling now" and then Memere starts flinging pooh at us..
That's pretty much the bulk of the dream..with Memere appearing out of nowhere throwing huge pieces of shit at anyone, and everyone. She was apparently pretty pissed that we forgot her. Maybe she "walks" with me too..although, if she did, I'm pretty sure I could smell her a mile away!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can I just tell you I smelled that shit bucket the moment you typed mem-may... nuts. Grammie used to put some sort of cheap powder disinfectant in it which was almost as offensive as the shit smell she was covering up.. funny, too, I dream about grammie and epping road all the time but never about mem-may. I suspect I will though soon (thanks) :) I think her weapon of choice will be her tusk-like toe nails... wonder where you get your foot diversion from?

Anonymous said...

i've had 'abandonement' dreams off and on about my horse. that decades later he is still in the stall/barn and no one has been taking care of him. somehow,with out being fed he is still alive after all this time and his stall is filthy. i wonder what significance these type of dreams are supposed to have.