My Spanish Speakin Grandma

April 1st, 2014

I would like to take a blog entry to appreciate how lucky I am to have been placed in this house for my time in Costa Rica.  God was taking special care of me when he put me under Lidiette’s care.  Tati (the name her grandkids call her by, also what Lizzie and I were invited to call her by) is such a grandma to me.  I refer to her as mama tica, but really she is grandma tica.  Just allow me to list all the ways in which she is my latina grandma:

 

• She has the biggest heart with which she loves so fully.  Anything she can do to make us more at home she is more than happy to do.
• Her words of wisdom are endless.  She always knows what to say and how to approach problems.  From boys, to death, to God, to school projects, this woman has words of wisdom.
• Her faith is so beautiful and so very evident in her life.  Born and raised Catholic, Tati knows God’s love.
• Her cooking.  Her cooking is phenomenal.  She doesn’t have a stove or an oven yet this woman works wonders.  She cooks everything on an electric fryer but has made me fall in love with Costa Rica solely because of their food.
• Its the little things she does.  Example 1:  I could have sworn I was in my grandma’s kitchen back in Colorado when she was teaching us how to make Cas ice cream.  We went to take a taste before freezing it, and when she saw how much we put on our spoon she said “Oh no, you have to put more than that! Take a big spoonful!” I laughed so hard, because I was reminded so much of my own grandma.  Example 2:  She kept suggesting I go to the doctor because I have a cough, but when she realized I wasn’t going to go she took matters into her own hands with a homemade remedy.  A combination of honey and ginger mostly made my cough go away, and made my throat feel so much better.  Every time I cough now she goes “More syrup??” It just makes me smile.
• I usually forget she is 74 years old because she looks and acts so much younger, but sometimes there are things that remind me she is a grandma.  For example, a lot of the things in her house are very old, yet have been kept in pristine condition and are always kept very clean.  Example 2: She takes a daily two hour nap.  Example 3: She is a little hard of hearing.  At first I thought that my Spanish didn’t make sense, then I realized she just simply couldn’t hear me.

 

I just love everything about this woman.  She has grown very dear to my heart.  It is interesting that I was put in her house especially because she was introduced into my life just shortly before my grandma passed back home.  It has almost been like a way for my heart to heal from the loss of my grandma.  No one could ever replace my grandma, but I am happy to have a tica grandma now too.  Saying goodbye to her in 25 will be the hardest goodbye ever.  But were not talking about that.

Here she is teaching Lizzie to make empenaditas, I was just the photographer because I had a giant project due the next day and didn’t have time to learn.  But I wanted to put a photo of her.

The syrup mixture of honey and ginger.  It was spicy but sweet!