![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xansMy grandmother died back in June of 1996. We called her Grandma Kuia, which is kind of funny since Kuia is the moari word for "grandmother" but it differentiated her from Grandma McFarland. We had Granddad and Grandpa McFarland, so they were easy to diffentiate. Also, Granddad died back in 1980 long before Iain and I were born. But when he was a toddler my brother had a dream where Granddad took him trout fishing, and he told mum about it so since then he has been Granddad. My Australian cousins (mum's sis's kids) call him Koro, which is maori for grandfather.
So when she died he was 84 years old. I was scared of her, because she was old and frail and I was terrified she would have a serious fall or something happen in front of me and I would be unable to help her. I was just shy of my 11th birthday, and she had been in an old people's home for about 6 weeks when she died. She had been living with us in a granny flat, but she was so frail and mum was really exhausted, looking after us kids and working and also looking after her mum. So it had been decided Grandma Kuia would spend a little bit of time in a home, and she just sort of faded away.
I didn't cry when she died. I was relieved for her, because it meant she would no longer be frail and old. And she was with Granddad again. Mum had her cremated, and for a while the ashes were stored in a cupboard in the granny flat. Every time my brother and I walked past that cupboard we felt obligated to say hello to her. We were scared of what would happen if we didn't. Eventually mum got permission from the council in Napier, Grandma's home town, to have her ashes buried in the old cemetary behind the headstone of one of our ancestors. When Alan and I went there a couple years ago I took him to there and at first I couldn't find the headstone but eventually we did. I can't remember if I said hi to her that time.
So when Grandma Kuia died, she left some money for my cousins, brother and I. It was put into a trust for each of us that we could not access until we were 25. Not a huge amount of money, but enough to go on a nice trip, or maybe put towards a car or house or something. Well... as the youngest, I turned 25 just last July. I've been sitting on the check for the last 3 months, sort of trying to decide what to spend part of it on. And today... I spent.
First of all I bought some new shoes. My boots, sandals, and walking shoes all need replacing, but the boots can wait until winter. The sandals and walking shoes got replaced today. As did my beach feet, the new pair funnily enough match my wetsuit and kayak, lol. I got some pretty gothy black pants, Thai size XL (12). I am so very, very glad that somehow in the last year I have managed to lose a significant amount of weight. I was up to 14s and pushing it, now I am back to 12 and very comfortable with that.
However the big spend of the day was that I bought a new computer box. Remember my old one crapped out? The Display Driver stopped working. And we called in geeks-on-wheels and the guy charged us $400 and didn't fix the problem. So it was running, only kind of, in safe mode. Now I have a new comp and it's pretty and shiny and new. :)
I know mum wants me to spend part of that inheritance on a trip to the States, we shall see how that goes. I think we still need to wait a bit because Alan needs to save up some cash, too. But a trip to the States would be cool.
Fin.
So when she died he was 84 years old. I was scared of her, because she was old and frail and I was terrified she would have a serious fall or something happen in front of me and I would be unable to help her. I was just shy of my 11th birthday, and she had been in an old people's home for about 6 weeks when she died. She had been living with us in a granny flat, but she was so frail and mum was really exhausted, looking after us kids and working and also looking after her mum. So it had been decided Grandma Kuia would spend a little bit of time in a home, and she just sort of faded away.
I didn't cry when she died. I was relieved for her, because it meant she would no longer be frail and old. And she was with Granddad again. Mum had her cremated, and for a while the ashes were stored in a cupboard in the granny flat. Every time my brother and I walked past that cupboard we felt obligated to say hello to her. We were scared of what would happen if we didn't. Eventually mum got permission from the council in Napier, Grandma's home town, to have her ashes buried in the old cemetary behind the headstone of one of our ancestors. When Alan and I went there a couple years ago I took him to there and at first I couldn't find the headstone but eventually we did. I can't remember if I said hi to her that time.
So when Grandma Kuia died, she left some money for my cousins, brother and I. It was put into a trust for each of us that we could not access until we were 25. Not a huge amount of money, but enough to go on a nice trip, or maybe put towards a car or house or something. Well... as the youngest, I turned 25 just last July. I've been sitting on the check for the last 3 months, sort of trying to decide what to spend part of it on. And today... I spent.
First of all I bought some new shoes. My boots, sandals, and walking shoes all need replacing, but the boots can wait until winter. The sandals and walking shoes got replaced today. As did my beach feet, the new pair funnily enough match my wetsuit and kayak, lol. I got some pretty gothy black pants, Thai size XL (12). I am so very, very glad that somehow in the last year I have managed to lose a significant amount of weight. I was up to 14s and pushing it, now I am back to 12 and very comfortable with that.
However the big spend of the day was that I bought a new computer box. Remember my old one crapped out? The Display Driver stopped working. And we called in geeks-on-wheels and the guy charged us $400 and didn't fix the problem. So it was running, only kind of, in safe mode. Now I have a new comp and it's pretty and shiny and new. :)
I know mum wants me to spend part of that inheritance on a trip to the States, we shall see how that goes. I think we still need to wait a bit because Alan needs to save up some cash, too. But a trip to the States would be cool.
Fin.
