This FabMom finds wisdom to deal with the pandemic from her 100-year-old Grandma E

Here we are, in a freakin’ pandemic. Three weeks into “safer at home,” my days run high with competing emotions — extreme positivity (we can do this!) and shameless annoyance (please shut up on Facebook). Daily conversations with my sister, dad and extended family (in Fresno) affirm that we here in Los Angeles are about seven-10 days ahead of the Central Valley in number of COVID-19 cases and shifted lifestyle. On the outside, I’m a strong mom for my kids’ sense of security. On the inside, I’m panicked about our health and freedoms going forward.

Every morning, I open my eyes with “Thank you God for this day.” I then quickly follow up with “What is this world?!” Talks with with my 100-year-old Grandma are my latest therapy.

Yes, she turns ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD this month. She doesn’t take one pill, walks without a walker and (up until recent government orders) she’d get her hair done weekly at a salon. She’s lived longer than anyone I’ve ever known and has seen everything, from great success to deep tragedy.

She was raised during the Great Depression and is now one of the last living examples of our country’s Greatest Generation. “I didn’t even know what a father was,” she recently remembered with me (her dad died when she was 6). After high school, she moved from Sanger to San Francisco to work for a bank. “I had a ball,” she’ll sometimes reminisce. As a wife and mother (in Easton), she was a homemaker — drove her kids to music lessons on weekends and a tractor through rows of raisins on weekdays because it was “the right thing to do, to help your husband and family back then.”

She’s outspoken yet reassuring. She’s fun and adorable. She’s tough.

“I’ve lived too long!” she playfully says on every phone call. I always laugh, “Yeah, you have! Why do you think you’re still around?” She doesn’t know. I remind her to ask God “why’”when she gets there and send word back so we can all finally find out. Then she laughs. And then she tells me this, every time: “Jill, whatever you do, just enjoy your life — your family, your kids.”

She raised two great children — smart, hard-working, capable (one of them being my mom, rest in peace). Those two great kids raised more good kids (five of us cousins). And now, all of us grandkids are parents. My “little blonde Grandma” is now Great-Grandmother to 10 great-grandchildren — infants to 9 years old.

“So what’s the key to raising kids, Grandma?” I ask her this same question frequently, just to see if her answer changes with her mood. It never does. “Your children come first,” she repeats, every time. “If you’re going to have kids, you’d better think about them before yourself.” I always smile in agreement.

“This world has turned crazy,” she told me recently, with her TV news on in the background. I tried to seek comfort, “Do you think this is a wake-up call for people to live better lives?” She paused and then offered, “Well, the people who really should wake up ... won’t.” Unfortunately, I think she’s right. “This world has gotten so much worse than how it was back in my day,” she added.

“But I’ll say this, Jill...” she continued. “Even when things do get worse, they always get better.”

My eyes immediately welled, grateful to absorb 100-year-old wisdom like that any day ... especially during a pandemic. Love you, Grandma E.