June 28: Why I am a Californian. Ode to a Grandmother who saved my life

June 28, 1919

Today is my grandmothers birthday, well my great grandmother. My grandmother died before I came around these parts. The details of her death haunt me to this day.

Today, June 28, I have always remembered because my great grandmother loved to go to Sizzler on her Birthday! She is the reason I am a Californian. She moved from Louisiana to Arkansas (where her parents were slaves/sharecroppers), at the age of 16 or 18 she left her family and moved to California!

Fast forward a few decades and here I am.

That’s the simple version

June 28, 1919.

I recall it like it was yesterday, she was in the kitchen on the phone with her friend planning her trip to Sizzler, and I thought she did this before,and in that moment I looked up at a wall calendar hanging right by the yellow rotary phone, June 28 was circled and it was her Birthday! I was 5. I never forgot it. I never forgot her.

I was not her favorite person in the world. She said I looked too much like my daddy,which was unacceptable to her, but it didn’t matter to me if she liked me first, second, third, or fourth, she was family and I loved her.She literally saved my life.

I was almost killed as youngling and I guess on an energetic level that is why I was drawn closer to her. The woman who literally saved my life. The details of which still haunt me to this day. I never truly understood how courageous she was but I do now. If it were not for my Great Grandmother I would not be able to write this post.

Thank you June 28, 1919

From your eternal friend June 28, 2013

Grandmother Love
Grandmother Love

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