My Grandma is the Gretchen Weiners of the Elderly set

I went to visit my grandma at her assisted living home this afternoon. She is very excited at the moment because tomorrow she is traveling to Pennsylvania to the annual family gathering. She is the eldest of ten children and loves her role as the family matriarch. She will be a queen on the throne among the 200 or so various cousins, aunts, and uncles assembled for the reunion. At her apartment in Texas though it is a very different life.

As my mom and I were double checking her suitcases there came a sharp knock at her door and a woman stood there in her walker and sharply told my grandma, "Edna! Its time to go play dominoes and you are sitting by me today." My mom and I politely told the woman that she would be along in a few minutes and we would be leaving soon. We were just getting her all packed for her trip. This made the woman a bit frantic..."Trip? where is she going?" My mother explained what was happening over the weekend and instead of being happy for my grandma the lady looked accusing at her as if my grandmas plans were any of her business at all. She huffed and continued in her walker towards the game room.

Then my grandma became distressed about the situation and told us she really needed to get to dominoes because her friend and two other ladies needed her to occupy the chair before a woman they did not like took the spot. Apparently there is some poor woman trying to horn on on their foursome and the huffy woman was having none of that.She needed my grandma to take her usual seat so they could purposely leave out this other poor woman.

The realization hit me...grandma is a mean girl....not the Regina George of the group...but definitely not wanting to rock the balance of the hierarchy of assisted living cliques. The NY Times recently had a piece about this same thing in the  OP/ED section written by one of my favorite writers...and of course the illustration they used I loved! Hence I am using it here....