December 8, 2015 by Amy
90
We celebrated M’s grandmother’s (Zoe’s great-grandmother’s) 90th birthday tonight. I sat across a big table made up of a bunch of smaller tables from her and watched as her family here in St. Louis surrounded her both physically and emotionally with love, and saw how her family scattered across the country celebrated on Facebook. The woman is beloved.
Now, I think I have a fairly keen grasp of Mary Zlatic. And my opinion is totally unbiased because I married into this huge, crazy family. I’ve known her for a tiny bit over 23 years now, which is a good chunk of time to get to know someone. Here’s what I know about her.
She is kind. I have never heard this woman utter anything negative about anyone else, even when they deserve it. Well, except for stupid politicians, who especially deserve it and besides she’s always been correct.
She is generous. It doesn’t matter what time you show up at her house, she pushes food (and by “food” I mean “mostly treats”) and drink on you. She also doles out hugs upon demand and love constantly.
She has a great sense of humor. She laughs a lot, and gets a kick out of her kids, her grandkids, and her great-grandkids. She also gets a kick out of those little alcoholic chocolates and giggles even more when her coffee is spiked with Kahlua, but those are stories for another time.
She has the patience of a saint. She raised seven children. Enough said.
She has the most wicked sweet tooth I have ever seen, except for the sweet teeth she passed down to her oldest grandson and his daughter. M swears that his love of chocolate is all her fault, and that it gets stronger with each generation. I tell him to stop blaming his sweet grandmother for his inability to pass up a bowl of M&Ms but he won’t listen.
She is loyal. She’s had friends since kindergarten and they still get together regularly for brunch. Except for Evelyn. Oh, she died. (That’s an inside-joke between Grandma and me.)
She is brilliant. The clearest evidence of this is in her kitchen. She has a whole drawer devoted to goodies, and it’s always stocked. And if you can’t find something in there (or rather, after you’ve made your way through the Goody Drawer), you move on to the Goody Annex, also known as the freezer, which is also always stocked with, well, goodies. Further proof is in this anecdote: she once told us that she figured she could get around the whole fasting between meals during Lent thing by simply staying at the kitchen table all day, from which, I’d like to point out, she can reach both the Goody Drawer and the Goody Annex. “It’s like all one loooong meal that way,” she laughed.
So, my totally unbiased opinion is that Grandma is amazing and ranks above Wonder Woman, and I want to be just like her when I grow up.
Except for the seven kids thing. I can’t handle that.
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