From the Soul: I Love My Grandma!!!

I LOVE MY GRANDMA!! Anyone who knows me, knows that me and my grandmother are tighter than pantyhose two sizes small ("Good Times" reference). I have lived with her my entire life that I can remember (until I married and moved out) and she has always been my strongest cheering section. I am 37 years old and I have seen my grandmother almost everyday of my life. God has blessed her to be 83 years old with all of her mental and physical abilities. I live fewer than five drivable minutes away and she comes to visit us everyday.

My children have the benefit of this loving elder who feeds their dreams with peppermints and kind words, who encourages their growth with her laughter and smiles. My grandmother loves my children and my husband as if she gave birth to them; in fact, she loves them like she loves me. My grandmother is our family matriarch, the keeper of our family history and a walking library of the black experience. She is a wonderful testament to the adage that "black don't crack" because she looks about two decades younger than she is. She is a feisty old lady with style, grace, class and poise. In fact, if I grow up to be half the woman that she is--well, let's just say that I will be something to behold.

I LOVE MY GRANDMA and I want everyone to know that she has poured the best of herself into me, a child that wasn't hers, but that she could not have loved more. I am grateful to my grandmother for giving me feathers for my first pair of wings. I am her namesake (the Cornell is from her), her pride and her granddaughter. It is good to be me.

Here are two versions of the Bill Withers' classic, "Grandma's Hands." ENJOY!!

Bill Withers "Grandma's Hands" (The Original Version)





Y'Anna Crawley "Grandma's Hands" (BET Sunday's Best version)