A Interview With My Grandmother

My great-grandmother was raised by her mom, dad, and other relatives. She, and many cousins, were raised up as brother and sister in a close-knit family. Harriett Marshall, my great-grandmother, was born in Saltillo, Tennessee on January 7, 1931. She has lived through many trying times. It is a blessing to live through so many events that changed the nation, even the world. She has lived through the following events and many more: The Great Depression, World War II, the historic signing of Jackie Robinson, Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights movement and many more.

It was near the end of winter 2005, when my grand-aunt suddenly fell ill. In a short period of time her illness worsened and the doctors informed my family, my grand-aunt only had a couple of months to live. The news was devastating to my family as we watched a vivacious, independent, and outspoken woman, who enjoyed shopping, reading mystery novels and spending time with family become very weak and confined to her bed. Instead of placing my grand-aunt in a hospice facility, my family and I, with the assistance of a hospice nurse cared for my grand-aunt in her home until her passing.

I chose to interview my grandmother, Maryann Metzger. I chose her because she is probably one of the strongest people I know. I wanted to learn more about her childhood. After talking with her I realized that she may not remember a lot about women’s rights at that time but she does remember segregation. Through this I learned many things that I didn’t know before.

Personally, I believe wisdom is defined as a quality that some people possess of having experience and knowledge in general things throughout life. These people found their chi (I guess you could say) in life and are comfortable in the state they are currently living. Before I started this interview assignment, I had hopes of learning more about the life of my grandma and the difference of living from the 1930s to 2017. From the very beginning, when I reading through the syllabus, I knew I was going to interview my grandma. My grandma is the relative who I am closest to, besides my dad. Yes, I would have interviewed my dad because he would be 70, but sadly he had passed away. I thought this would be perfect for me and my grandma because, though I hear so many stories all the time, I never get tired of listening. The interview was arranged at her house, over a cup of coffee and cookies. The questions I thought of pertained to my grandma’s life (i.e. how did you meet grandpa and how long did you wait until marriage; what influenced your life decisions and why…etc.). I developed these questions regarding my grandma’s life because I didn’t want to make it like an interview, so I arranged the questions to sort of tell a story.

For the oral history project, I interviewed my grandmother. Her full name is Imelda Laborce, while she is known as “Meldy” to most family members. She was born in a small town called Calapacuan in the Zambales region of the Philippines. She was born in 1955 and is 61 years old. Like me, she was born in the Philippines but eventually moved to America sometime in her life. I believed she was a good candidate because I knew she was one of the earliest members of my family to travel to America. Hence, she must have good stories and have a rich background. I also never really knew anything about her past, so I just thought it would be interesting in general to learn about it. She currently lives in Union, New Jersey and works in a hospital as a nurse.

During my time interview my grandma Moui, she stated her grandfather is named Thongdee Sophabmixay and he married my great great-grandmother Nang Laso. He was the mayor of the Muang Sami Tai of the Huaphanh province Laos. Her grandfather had married to three wives after each one of them dies and had nine children. Thongphet is Thongdee’s son which is my great grandfather and he married to Kang Koui which is my great-grandmother. Thongphet was a judge of Xiang Man City and he had nine children. However, three of the children die and the rest went to live in the country of United States, Australia, and Laos.

I interview my maternal great-grandmother, Jane Franklin. She is 81 years old and she was born in Shelter Island, Long Island, NY. She currently lives in Aiken, SC, but she just recently moved from Chula Vista, CA. Both of her grandparents were born in New York. Her mother was born in Aiken, SC, and her father was born in Corona, Queens, NY. She grew up in New York City with her mother, sister, and brother in an urban setting. Many African American families also lived in their neighbors

Will the older generation know as much about sexual assault as my peers and I? That was the main question I was trying to solve before going into an interview with my grandma. I went into the interview having no idea whether my grandma would be as knowledgeable as I am or not. I have always looked up to my grandma and seen her as a role model. She’s always seemed to know the answers to any of my questions and is the wisest person I know. I thought the interview process was going to be easy, since I have a very good relationship with my grandma. I had set up an organized method of how I was going to ask the questions and was eager to call her. She was excited to receive a call from me as usual, and I was excited to find out the answer to my question.

This is my Grandfather Lowell Fetters, my mothers father. He was drafted into the war at 19 in 1967 and shipped off to war at 20 in 1968 a year after graduating from Ludington high school. He is now 69 years old. He lived in Ludington Michigan with his wife before we were involved in the war. He now lives in Muskegon Michigan He served in the war, and now he just plays pool with his friends. I interviewed him on February 28th over the phone, we talked for 30 minutes.

2) My second object is grandmother's medicine. My grandmother is a good doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. The most of time, my grandmother made medicine by herself. In my city, a lot of people ask grandmother for help made medicine because my grandmother's medicine is very useful for stomachache. So my grandmother help them, lots of people was very appreciated, and they always help my grandmother when grandmother have some problem. By this thing I learned if I am a well-disposed and kind person, help others, and I'll be helped.

After roasting marshmallows, the sticky sweet on my sons' fingers, my father stares into the coals, starts talking about his mother, my grandmother, my sons' great-grandmother. He tells of how she fought her death to the end, even under the morphine drip. Nonverbal tantrums on her bed.

My granny is someone who has had a positive impact on my life. One reason why my granny is a positive influence is because she has always taught me what is right and what is wrong. Another way my granny influences me in a positive way is because she always tells me she is proud of me and all of my accomplishments. This makes me want to do even better to make her happy and even more proud of me. My granny is like a second mother to me and always has been.

I will tell you a tale of a woman of great success. This is a woman that has inspired me to be something great one day and to never give up trying. Though she may be growing into her elderly years she has lived a very challenging, joyful, loving and successful life. She is a woman of great faith and character, she is my grandmother.

My grandma has alzheimer's so, she can’t remember anything that happened earlier that day or 5 minutes ago. I know that I can’t get mad at her when she doesn't remember things I just told her. I know that she will remember things about music or some things when she was a child. So, I know some things she won’t remember what I did sometimes.

Based on an interview with my grandma, Bien Nguyen who is my father’s mom, she claims to be 77 years old, based on her zodiac animal of a dragon. She does not know her exact birthday and only kept track of the year she was born, based on her lunar calendar animal. My grandma’s chronological age is middle old, but her functional age is young-old based on her performance of still being exceptionally active and going on two-mile walks everyday and swimming three times a week (Berk, 2009).