Advertisement
Published: November 19th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Lola!
We finally snagged a photo of her at an evening out towards the end of the trip. Smile! :) “Did you have any fruit?” It’s a common question after our meals, since fruit is eaten often as a dessert. Today, however, I had already brought two clementines with me to school to snack on between classes, so I didn’t really feel like having another. “No,” I replied, then tried in vain to explain the situation, but Lola is impatient and if I can’t talk quickly, I don’t get to say anything. “¿¡NO!? Pues estas son muy buenas. Son muuuy buenas. ¡Toma, toma, toma!” She was waving one in my face, telling me that they were very good and she had just bought them today so I should certainly try one, then began to peel it so that I couldn’t say no. I finally got out what I was going to say, but she was convinced they were great and it would be worth it, and so I reluctantly held out my hand. And she was right, it was good. Oh, Lola. I don’t think I’ve talked much about her, except maybe briefly, so Lola, this one’s for you.
Lola has the same schedule every day. She gets up a little before nine to set out our breakfast for us: dishes, cereal, juice, milk, butter, jam, bread. Despite our insistent attempts to tell her she really doesn’t have to get up just to do that, that we’re perfectly capable of opening the cabinets ourselves, she takes her job very seriously and won’t let us do a thing. “I am your Spanish mother!” she cries, “and you are my niñas!” Sometimes, when I have class too late in the day to come back for lunch, she also makes me a bocadillo, which is a type of sandwich, but generally I’m not really a fan of bocadillo days, because for the most part Spain has not really gotten very creative with them. No Jimmy John’s or Subways here, and until I requested otherwise all I got was a ton of salami between two slices of bread (the bread being of the baguette variety, not like sliced bread from a package). Lola always made such a big show of feeling bad for me on these days, so one day when she brought it out with a sigh and a “Tu bocadillo, mi niña.” I replied with, “Sí, es muy triste.” Lola just thought it was hilarious that I called it sad, and so she adopted the name. “Bocadillo triste!” or “Sad bocadillo!” was her new favorite thing to say when presenting it to me in the morning.
What’s funny about the fact that she insists on doing everything is that she still loves to act like we need her help, even though we try to tell her that seriously, we are not incapable human beings. There are some things we can take care of. When I went to Málaga recently I had to get up early to catch the train, and therefore needed to eat around 7am. “Oh, well I will NOT be getting up to make you breakfast!” Lola assured me, “That is just TOO early, you’re just going to have to do it yourself.” I think I can handle it, Lola. Or the time I told her I would be eating dinner really late but that I could just - “Welllllll I will be in bed by then, you’re just going to have to get something yourself!” -Yes… As I was saying… But then sometimes she does it anyway.
After she sends us off after breakfast, she goes and has coffee with her friends at the café on the corner. Every day. Then she returns home and starts knitting. Currently she’s making tiny little baby sweaters, because her son’s wife is having a baby soon, so she’s getting a head start on its wardrobe, which is an understatement. She’s got a whole crate of tiny little sweaters for this child, all in different colors and styles and some with long sleeves and some with short… It seems like every day she has finished another one. So, she knits. She and Stephanie eat lunch together every day at around 2:00, but I only eat with them on Mondays and Fridays because my schedule is so sporadic. After lunch she puts the TV on and takes her siesta. Then she awakes and knits some more. Eventually it’s dinner time, which she makes for us but does not eat with us. One day I asked her why.
“I am never hungry,” she replied, “The only reason I eat lunch is because I know I have to eat. Never in my entire life have I ever said, 'I am hungry and would really like to eat something.' Never! I only eat because I must do it to survive!” Have I mentioned that she can be a bit dramatic? I told Steph about this and she hypothesized that she's never hungry because she smokes like a chimney. Ah yes, that could be a contributing factor…
She sometimes chats with us during dinner, but only if we can keep the conversation going. If she gets bored, she runs off to find something to do. But when she gets going she’s hard to stop, and if we ever want to say something during a conversation, we better say it fast, because she’ll interrupt before we’ve gotten 5 words out. Though I’m fairly certain this is a quality of Spanish women/ people in general; interruptions are a natural part of conversation here. And Lola loves to talk, my goodness does she like to talk. All day long the phone is ringing, and she chats and chats and chats and laughs and talks and does this weird cackle thing because her voice is so hoarse from smoking her entire life… If the phone rings during a meal, she gives an exaggerated sigh, and says sarcastically, “Ah yes! The telephone ringing at a meal time! What a straaange thing to happen!” And then she answers it and talks for a half an hour.
She’s dramatic, she’s thoughtful, she’s insistent, she’s my Spanish mother. And she has a million different names for Steph and I. Hija, niña, bonita, cielo, mi vida… Daughter, girl, beautiful, heaven, and my personal favorite, “my life.” One time she called me “princesa” when setting my dinner on the table, and laughed hysterically when I replied, “Thank you, queen.”
Hopefully soon I will be able to snag a picture of Lola. I tried getting her to smile once, but she didn’t feel she looked presentable enough to be a photo at that moment, so she wouldn’t let me take it.
So she sleeps, talks, and knits, but she’s happy. We had an entire conversation about it one day. “Some people need to travel, to be busy, to be constantly doing new and different things to be happy, but that’s not me. I am content with what I do, I have my family, my grandkids, and I love doing things for other people. That’s what makes me happy. I don’t need much. I can be happy right here.”
Words of wisdom. Lola, I just might miss you.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0715s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Janelle
non-member comment
What a nice commentary! I'm glad that Lola enjoys "taking care" of you and Steph. Love, Mom