Grandma’s saving bonds

Tomorrow my grandma is buying my daughter Katherine a new computer. She won’t be skimping either. That’s not her way.

Grandma always had a nose for quality, in solid wood furniture, in warm winter coats and, especially, in people.

A housecoat-wearing, tea-sipping, force of nature who welcomed family and banished dust with equal passion, Grandma worked hard and spent money wisely. Some, like my father, would have said she spent it frugally.

Dad once bought his mom a new green winter coat because she told him green was her favorite color. It stayed brand new for years.

On one visit, he asked her why she never wore her new coat. She acted like it was a ridiculous question.

“Because my old one still works,” she said.

So, it’s a big deal that Baba Kostelnik will be buying Katherine a new Macbook Air; the technology alone would stun her. The purchase is even cooler because my grandma died in 2002.

In life, grandma did not suffer fools gladly. “Watch the checkout, Laurie,” she once told me. “They’ll cheat the hell out of you.”

Grandma believed in hard work and fair play. She walked up a steep hill to work every day in the general store, walked back down for lunch, and then back up again to complete her day. From those hard-earned paychecks, Grandma supplemented the family income and saved.

Each of her grandchildren received generous savings bonds, which means Grandma will be supporting her grandchildren, and reminding them how to spend money wisely, well into their adult years.

I love this legacy and I’m tickled that, in her way, Grandma will be heading to Hollywood to keep an eye on Katherine.