Don't Call Me Grandma
by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon
illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon
Transcript
00:00For Grandmother Sina.
00:07V.M.N.
00:08For all the strong and powerful ladies in my life.
00:12E.Z.
00:14Don't call me Grandma.
00:16By Vonda Mykiro-Nelson.
00:19Illustrations by Elizabeth Zunon.
00:30Great Grandmother Nell is scary.
00:57Once I forgot and called her Grandma.
01:00She yanked my ear leaned in close and said.
01:04It's Grandmother my pretty.
01:06Just like the witch in The Wizard of Oz.
01:10Great Grandmother Nell fries fish and boils grits for breakfast.
01:14I like fish, but for breakfast.
01:18And with the heads on and the creepy fish eye looking right at me from my plate.
01:23Great Grandmother Nell likes the beach, when we got, the poses in her bathing suit like
01:28she's a movie star.
01:30I pretend to be a movie star too, but she clicks her tongue.
01:35Scandalous, she says, so I stop.
01:40Great Grandmother Nell has a short stubby glass with a picture of a spider on our side.
01:46She fills the glass with something that looks like apple juice and takes tiny sips.
01:52One spider glass full lasts all day.
01:55She let me taste it one time.
01:58Yuck.
02:00Now I know why she takes tiny sips.
02:03Why do you drink it?
02:05I ask.
02:07Heart medicine she says.
02:10Broken heart.
02:12I reach for her, but she turns away.
02:15Great Grandmother Nell never hugs.
02:19Great Grandmother Nell is prickly, but her bedroom isn't.
02:22A princess could sleep there.
02:25I'm not allowed to play in Great Grandmother's room but sometimes she lets me go in, just
02:30to look.
02:32A ballerina doll sits in the middle of the bed, her long cloth arms and legs folded just
02:37right.
02:39I want to pick the ballerina up.
02:42But her expression makes me think she might tell.
02:46Great Grandmother Nell has a special dresser called a vanity.
02:50It has a cushiony stool in front and mirrors all around even on the shelves.
02:56Great Grandmother Nell looks in the mirror and growls.
03:00Then she turns and growls at me.
03:03I squeal and run, hoping she'll chase me.
03:07She doesn't.
03:09Great Grandmother Nell's room smells sweet.
03:12Like lilacs and roses, powder puffs and lipsticks and nail polish and wigs and pearls and earrings
03:19and bottles and bottles and bottles of perfume crowd the vanity shelves.
03:24Mirrors make it look like there are more bottles than there really are.
03:28All shapes and sizes and colors.
03:32Fancy glass, blue and green, pink and yellow.
03:36From New York or London or Paris.
03:39The ones I like best have sparkly glass tops with stems that Great Grandmother daps behind
03:45her small ears.
03:47Here she says and daps me with something that smells like vanilla.
03:52Then she sniffs me hard and loud with her wide nostrils.
03:56Great Grandmother Nell is stern, but she is glamorous.
04:01Her skin is chocolatey brown and her lips are pained ruby red.
04:05After she puts on lipstick, she presses her mouth to a tissue.
04:10She colors my lips too, then shows me her tissue trick.
04:15To make sure you are wearing just enough but not too much she explains.
04:21I pucker my lips and kiss the air.
04:24Great Grandmother Nell never kisses.
04:27Great Grandmother Nell is 96, and she remembers every minute of her life.
04:33All of it, from the day I was born she tells me.
04:37She remembers when she only had to pay 14 cents to see a double feature at the movies
04:42and a Hershey bar cost a nickel.
04:45She remembers the time her sour cherry pie won first prize at the church picnic and May
04:50Ella Carter, who always bragged about her blue ribbon blueberry pie, was mad as a hornet.
04:57She remembers the time her best friend said they couldn't be friends anymore because of
05:02her brown skin.
05:04Eyes that when your heart got broken grandmother.
05:07I ask.
05:09She looks out the window and whispers, the first time.
05:13I pat her hand.
05:32Papa says Great Grandmother Nell won't be with us much longer because she is so old.
05:47I don't think he's right.
05:49She's old, but she's not worn out.
05:53Tonight I climb out of bed and sneak into the room.
05:57The ballerina is sitting on the vanity stool watching other ballerinas in the mirrors.
06:02She won't notice me.
06:05A lamp is on by the bed, but Great Grandmother Nell is sleeping.
06:09I can tell because she is snoring like a dragon.
06:13No fire is coming out but her nostrils get bigger and smaller every time she breathes.
06:20Even asleep, Great Grandmother Nell is scary.
06:24But I like her that way.
06:26I give her a little hug.
06:28She smells like peaches.
06:31I kiss my grandma.
06:33She won't know.
06:35The end.