Good-bye to Granny Laird

I am so sad to say that my sweet Gran Laird passed away on September 16th. She had severe dementia and just hadn't been doing well for a few weeks. She slipped away at the Peebles Nursing home very early in the morning. I found out right before getting on a bus to go on a field trip for my Interpreting the Landscape course. Pretending to be interested in rocks and geology after getting news like that is super challenging and just sucky in general.

Dad came back to Edinburgh- about 2 weeks after he had just been here! Of course it was great to see him again and to catch up with people in my family that I don't see every much. It is a shame that it takes a funeral to bring people together.

This sad day did inspire a little trip down memory lane though, as the passing of people tends to do. Dad and I spent an afternoon in Stock Bridge where both my Granny and my Dad grew up. My Granny's father was a tailor who owned a large house in Raeburn Place. His shop was in the front of the house. My Granny lived in that house with her father for a significant chunk of her life, even after she had married my Grandpa. My Dad and his brother Lindsay lived in that house too. I am told that it had a gorgeous big back yard, with a grand tree that my Dad would climb. This is the house that my Granny always talked about during her dementia. As far as she was concerned, she still lived in that house.

Unfortunately, the house is no longer there. It was demolished and turned into a Scotmid Co-op. It is heart breaking to lose a piece of personal history- all in the name of progress. But the tree that Dad used to climb is still in the back. The rest of the street apparently hasn't changed much though. Dad was astonished to find the fish monger and the barber shop still there- still with the same names!

We also spent some time in a park that Dad used to play in as a child. He told me the story of how he had been showing off on his bike one day as he was riding down the hill and didn't turn in time. Instead he went flying into the pond with his bike! We found the exact spot he had gone for an impromptu swim. A nice afternoon at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens was also a great back drop to remember my Granny. She would have had something to say about the massive crow that help himself to some lunch!

I will miss my Granny dearly. She was a kind and loving woman. I just wish I had gotten to know her better. But it just makes the time I spent with her a few weeks earlier even more valuable. So grateful I was here.