Page 5 - Vibrant Living Scrapbook

Meet Carmen’s Grandma by Way of Story
Meet my Grandma Bernie. Eleanor Bernice Munson was born near Detroit Lakes, MN. She never left the area, raising her three kids there and in Dent 30 miles away. Eventually, declining health forced her to move into the nearby Frazee Care Center nursing home. Although Grandma Bernie lived alone in a tiny house in the tiny town of Dent and never drove, she lived a vibrant daily life.
Bernie was renowned for her baking and cooking. People looked forward to her baked beans, potato salad, buns, creamed rice, creamed new potatoes and peas, leaf lettuce, canned peaches and pears...the list goes on. Her offering of baked goods is too long to type. Anyone who visited her house found at least 10 types of cookies, bars and cake on the little bakery cart in a corner of the kitchen.
She loved when people visited, and feeding them was her way of showing love. She always had the coffee pot on for people who just popped in. Bernie loved to play cards anytime anyone offered at her house or theirs. Even though she didn’t drive she went everywhere and made herself available to any invitation to go just about anywhere. Until her need for nursing care, she walked “uptown” every day to get the mail, several times a week to get groceries (which she carried home) and weekly to the little laundromat.
She noted each day’s occurrences on her calendar
and faithfully crossed off each day that had passed, leaving the new day before her unmarked and open to possibilities.
Bernie put her love into the detail of embroidery, crocheting and knitting. She found it helped her
stay awake in the evenings. She cleaned her church weekly and involved herself in its activities far beyond worshipping the Lord every Sunday. She loved us, her family, and got excited whenever we came to see her.
Like all of us, my grandma had unique gifts, talents and desires. Perhaps she honed her cooking and baking skills to fulfill her desire to be with people, to have her friends and family come see her. Then again maybe cooking and baking were simply part of the era she lived in. Perhaps there were other yearnings she never had the opportunity to pursue or unlock. I wish I had asked.
5