Austin Lewter/Jefferson Jimplecute
Some folks think it odd when I tell them my grandmother was my best friend.
Some think nothing of it.
She was. She passed away in 2015, after a graceful bout with cancer, and not a day goes by that I don’t think about her.
We had much common. In fact, she was probably the reason I went into journalism.
She taught school for decades. Most of her tenure was in the 8th grade English classroom. The latter years of her career were spent as an elementary school counselor.
She was my elementary school counselor. It was always handy having an ally at school.
Sometimes, though, it was a burden always having the watchful eye that came along with that ally.
Looking back, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
We were close back then. Many times, after school, my twin brother and I would hang out in her office until her workday concluded and she could take us home.
She retired from education shortly after our we went to junior high and she went to work at the local newspaper as a writer.
She was an excellent writer– one of the best I’ve ever known, in fact.
Her job required things community journalists still do today– chasing the police scanner, hanging out at the stock show and strolling the field events of the district track meet.
It also involved tackling deeper and more personal feature stories. At this task she was masterful.
She believed everyone had a story and took seriously the responsibility of telling those stories.
She handed that passion down to me.
Many was the afternoon I’d walk downtown to the newspaper office and spend a few hours just hanging out.
Often, though, I got put to work. I’d get pulled to the back to help sort mail. I’d be sent down the street with a camera.
I’d watch intently as the ladies pasted up pages with razor blades and wax paper (an art now replaced by computer software).
I’d jump in the car with her when an accident came across to the police scanner and we’d ride out to cover it.
I’d go to the stock show with her each spring and help take pictures of the kids, their animals and their ribbons.
Eventually, the editor gave me a camera and sent me out to cover high school football games on my own. I was, maybe, 13 at the time.
My grandmother worked there for five years before leaving to take care of her aging mother-in-law.
After college, and a journalism degree, my first editor job was at that same hometown newspaper.
When offered the job, I told my publisher I had one hire to make– my grandmother.
She came to work with me and spent another five years doing what she had before.
There we were, working together once again.
We became closer than ever.
Being in this business keeps me close to her, still, and that is a precious thing.
She was a scholar of the human condition and, as such, insightful and quotable.
She always knew how to piece the correct words together. She had little sayings I still live by today.
In fact, it was those little sayings with which I composed her eulogy.
I will share some of these sayings with you over the next six weeks, in a weekly column.
I hope, by sharing some of her words, you will better understand me and, in doing so, maybe better understand yourself.
The series will be called “The things Granny would say,” and you’ll have to pick up next week’s edition of Jimplecute for your first tidbit of wisdom from my grandmother, Jacquita Hughes Lewter.