White Hair and Calico

My granny would have been 103 today, had she lived that long. I lost her thirteen years ago. And even though she said she was going to a better place, I know this one was never as good with her gone.
She was one of the only people I've ever met who never said one bad word about anyone. She was the kindest person I have ever known.
Why is it the sweet, kind, giving ones always seemed to get the bad end of the deal? She was the oldest of eight children, and even though she loved school (and was good at it) she had to quit when she was in third grade, because girls were needed more at home for cooking, canning, and taking care of the house and other kids than they needed an education.
Her father used to beat her. Spare the rod and spoil the child was a common theme in the South until not long ago. But many parents took that rod thing a little too seriously. Her father once chased her up a tree with his threats of an imminent beating, and she stayed up there so long she dozed off and fell out of the tree. She had back problems the rest of her life.
She married to get away from that. She was twenty-two, which in rural Alabama in 1924, was an old maid. She met my grandfather at church, which proves even the devil goes to church. He was eighteen and if God could make an opposite of her in the male gender he was it. From the day they married, he ran around with every woman who would have him, and she forgave him and repeatedly let him come back home. She said women needed men to make a living. And they did. So even though he only worked when he could crawl out of bed long enough to, I guess to her it was enough.
She kept the cleanest house I've ever seen. It was simple; they never had much. I guess in some ways that made it easier. When she died, she was wearing her old house dress and undies with holes, while all the new things she had gotten for gifts were still wrapped in the boxes. She didn't throw anything away that still had usefulness in it.
She wore gingham dresses when she dressed up, calico housecoats when she didn't. Unlike me, she always had on shoes.
She believed only lazy or sick people ever went back to bed before bedtime, so her naps, which she denied, took place in her easy chair in front of one of her "stories" on television.
She was never famous, or famously talented. She will never be remembered for any great scientific breakthrough, but her kind of woman is the kind that makes a real difference in the lives of people she touches. Knowing her changed me. Made me want to be better. Made me sorry I did things that would have disappointed her. Made me want to teach my kids to be more like her, to not forget her.
I miss her very much. Today was her birthday, January 24. Happy Birthday, Granny.