pieces of grace

In all my years of experience with my grandmother, I never would have expected this of her. Admittedly, I have not spent a lot of time with her, but the only TV program that I ever saw capture her attention for a significant amount of time was the ballet Swan Lake on the Arts and Music channel. Yes, the image of Prince Siegfried dancing haphazardly in a dark blue sheet will forever be ingrained in my mind (he was supposed to be drowning, but that fact never registered with me, a 7 yr old. And honestly, the directors could have tried to come up with something better). Oh, and she’s been a long-time fan of Clint Eastwood, so I guess anything by him would have held her to her seat as well.

I recently helped my grandmother move into her new assisted living apartment, as she is now 93 years old. Since she usually just watches TV all day, I settled her down with the remote control as I read a book and my father and aunt handled all the logistics of moving in. Surprisingly, she didn’t seem to enjoy anything on TV, as she continuously flipped channels (and I mean continuously, as in going back and forth through the same series of cable channels at least three times) and fiddled with the volume. I was disappointed in her lack of attention, particularly since I had specially set the channel to an old Chinese guy speaking with great passion. Eventually, she just turned the volume down and started reading something else.

Yesterday, however, I was eating dinner in my grandmother’s apartment room and was most intrigued when I witnessed her come across Gossip Girl and fail to change the channel even once. At first, I thought it was merely because she was talking to my dad at the moment, but no, she continued to watch Serena make out with a guy (excuse my lack of knowledge of the show – the only thing I know is that Blake Lively is Serena and that Taylor Momsen, who used to be cute in Spy Kids and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, now looks like she’s 20). I watched as Serena suggest that she and her making out partner go somewhere more “private” – most understandable, since they were pushed up against a stairwell at their high school. Now, my grandma doesn’t speak English nor does she hear very well, so I could excuse her for the privacy suggestion by Serena. But she can see quite well, and the fact that there was only excessive making out on the screen made me more than a little suspicious. I proceeded to leave for about 20 minutes or so to watch Spider-Man with by brother in the lounge area and returned to find her even more engrossed in Gossip Girl. Instead of Serena making out this time, I found myself face to face with a guy at a party trying to lick some candy off another girl’s tongue in a most suggestive way. I was sure my grandma had fallen asleep, but no, I turned around, incredulous, to find her smiling and apparently riveted by Gossip Girl. It was obvious that she was enjoying herself. My parents, on the other hand, had nothing much to say. In short, this little incident brought me disgust, shock, and vast amusement, but most of all, I gained a valuable piece of knowledge: I now know what to get my grandma for her 94th birthday. So Gossip Girl Season 1 DVD, here we go.