Robert Dong-Blummer
Most of my memories of Grandma Dong revolve around phrases that she would consistently say in the same life context. From my many memories here are a few that stick out.
“Sami is not a bad person, she is just naughty”
As far as I know, there is no one named Sami in our family, but there is one in Grandma’s favorite soap opera “Days of Our Lives”. Grandma would always say this phrase whenever I asked what was going on in Days of Our Lives. Whenever I visited Grandma or she visited, there would be an hour on weekday afternoons devoted to watching her favorite soap, where she would let me know that, “Sami is not a bad person, she is just naughty.”
“It’s so cold, where is your jacket?”
I could never figure out why she was always so cold, even in the blazing summer heat. I always just assumed that living in Arizona year round would make anywhere else feel cold. Whenever we were out, and even inside, Grandma would be wearing some type of purple sweater wrapped tightly around her and a warm hat pulled down around her ears. She would then ask, “It’s so cold, where is your jacket?”
“You are going so slow”
This one is known to anyone who played Grandma’s favorite game, Mah Jong. All of my early memories of Grandma were around the Mah Jong table. The click of the tiles, the rapid pace at which she would take turns and slide the discarded tiles into the rubbish pile, and of course the smack talk from Grandma. Her favorite line, “You are going so slow,” was meant to give opponents a hard time. She would commonly make a point that she was older, implying that as younger folks we should be going faster than her.
“Grandma loves you and thinks about you all the time”
Whenever I saw Grandma Dong, she would always make a point to say this phrase or something akin to it. When your family lives scattered across the country, you never know the next time that schedules will align and you will be able to see your loved ones. Although there always seemed to be a pilgrimage of the family back to Tucson over the holidays; I always appreciated that she would say, “Grandma loves you and thinks about you all the time” every time we talked or were able to see each other in person. The last time I saw Grandma was last summer. We played Mah Jong, she told me how cold she was and asked where my jacket was, and as I was leaving she gave me a hug and said, “Grandma loves you and I think about you all the time.” Grandma Dong the feeling is mutual.
