A Tribute to My Great Grandmother Maw Maw and Her Legacy
When is this happening? The morning of 10/17/2023.
This story is currently being written by me, Wyatt Tomlin, age 15 (13 days away from 16) years old, in my great grandmother ‘Maw Maw’s’ kitchen. For the past couple of months, the relationship between me and my Maw Maw has exceedingly extended and I on average see her and come to her house approximately 2 or 1 time(s) a week. I am at her house currently, as I have been going here during this school year on online school lessons. My dad goes to work in-person at his campus two days a week, Monday and Tuesday, and works remotely from home for the remainder of the week, where he works at, at a college, and drops me off on Tuesdays at Maw Maw’s house in the morning on his way to work, where I stay for half of the day until my grandmother Nan (Maw Maw’s youngest daughter) picks my up around 2 PM and brings me to her house to visit. I have a very treasured relationships with my grandmother and 2 great grandmothers, GG (my great grandmother on my mother's side), who I usually visit every Monday, Maw Maw (my great grandmother on my father's side), who I usually visit every Tuesday until sometime around 2 PM, and Nan (my grandmother, and my father’s mother), who I usually visit every Tuesday when she picks me up sometime around 2 PM.
I sometimes also come to Maw Maw’s house on Sundays and play a card game called ‘Rummikub’ with her and her longtime friend Fran, who comes over. We have fun, playing cards, talking and sharing indelible memories, occasionally go out to eat out somewhere, telling forever lasting stories and ordering in food, having it delivered to her house from a local restaurant. I wasn’t able to come over last Sunday (two days ago) because I was at Kings Island, an amusement park near Cincinatti, Ohio with my grandpa and his girlfriend. Maw Maw actually called my phone, wondering if I was going to come over to her house with her and Fran, and I told her that I couldn’t make it over today because I was at Kings Island and told her that I would see her on Tuesday (today), when my dad drops me off and also potentially next Sunday. Maw Maw is usually still sleeping in her room when I come over. This morning, she was asleep still and was in the bathroom because I saw the refection of the light mirroring off the walls into the living room, and I just got up to go check on her and she went back in bed and is asleep.
Here is some widescreen, wide-angle lens photographs I had just taken with my phone of her living room. See below.
The room with the light on in the center-right of the photo seen above is the kitchen, where I am currently sitting in typing this.
Last Tuesday when I got dropped off by my dad, me and my dad came in and she was already awake sitting on this couch pictured below that I had just taken.
The Sunday prior to last Tuesday, she had asked my dad if he had any grocery bags, and if so if he could bring them over to her, as she likes to make what I presume to be called bags of balls. She does this quite often as a hobby and to pass time based on my contemplation. You can see them pictured below.
Usually when Maw Maw awakens, she gets up and comes out to the living room to see me and sits down on the prominent couch that I have shown previously. Maw Maw enjoys coffee, which is a notable routine in her morning, or whenever she wakes up for the day.
What we do
When Maw Maw gets up, if she wasn’t already when I’m here, she shares stories with me, that only she holds and has conscience of. Some of which include, events and memories that she recalls throughout her life, her childhood, her reach of her adulthood, her husband and my great grandfather Jimmy Swick, who I refer to as Poppy, who is now deceased, and died in 2011 when I was very young, how she met him, stories of her grandparents who raised her, her siblings, her parents who passed away when she was a child, and various other memories that she stores in her retention. What I find so unprocessable and inconceivable about particularly her stories and her visions, is the fact that she is the only one that can tell them accurately and remember them, because she is the oldest living person alive in her family tree to tell them, and especially in her perspective. I’m not taking this moment for granted and missing the temporary opportunity to write down and safeguard this vital information and the inspiring, distinctive legacy she will leave behind, before it’s too late and I won’t be able to go back. Nobody in my family, I guarantee has even thought of writing down the memories of Maw Maw’s life and preserve them to be beamed for future generations and an eternity, and I certainly know that nobody has, before me.
There’s a quote I would like to mention from late Senator Dianne Feinstein, one of my political inspirational figures who represented California in the US senate from 1992 until her recent passing in 2023, “We are here for an instant in an eternity and all that really matters is what we do with that time.”
That is exactly why I am doing this. Because if I don’t, after a while, that information will be forever lost, and it will be irreversible to return. Sure, I can retell the information and stories she had told me, but after a while I would progressively slowly start losing more and more details and key elements. If I have children and pass her legacy to them, eventually they would start losing details and so on and so forth, throughout time, her legacy would be forgotten and lost forever. Life is stupefyingly short and only last for the smallest portion of eternity. By writing everything down, exactly how she told me, will not only protect her legacy from being left behind permanently, but also describes it by capturing every single detail and aspect, exactly how she told and presented it to me.
It is now 10:18 AM EST and she is still lying in bed, sleeping. I just checked on her. And I just went and checked on her a second time and she is still fast asleep and genially, elegantly, softly snoring, which in case you are reading this in a time where it has evolved out of humans and you don’t know what it is, “snoring” is a noise made while sleeping and a vibration of respiratory structures and the resulting sound due to obstructed air movement during breathing while being asleep. Do you guys still snore, or is it not a thing anymore?
She is sleeping in, quite later than usually today. Maw Maw has often talked about having problems with sleeping and being able to sleep, which I ironically have the same issue as well. In fact, today I got up around 4 AM and just could not fall back to sleep, so I just started my day.
Maw Maw’s life at home
Maw Maw lives alone, as the only human living in the house, but is accompanied by her cat ‘Rowan’ who is a appears a little pessimistic, angry, and stressed every time I see her. She doesn’t seem to like me, at all, and every time I come over, she hides from me under Maw Maw’s bed or furniture. That’s probably partly because I regrettably teased and messed with her a few years back, which I wish I hadn’t of done. But even before that she hissed and spat at me every time, she was face to face with me. She also has evidently spat and hissed at my step cousin and best friend ‘Tom’ Thomas Ackerman, who lives with my grandmother Nan who I mentioned before, and her husband, who both currently have custody over him. So, I suppose I’m not the only one this cat is impertinent to.
Maw Maw has previously played games on her computer, like Solitaire and other computer card games, but hasn’t done so for a while. She doesn’t seem to eat much and if she does, she usually eats something relatively small. Last Tuesday when I came over, she was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the extra crunchy ‘Jif’ peanut butter and peach preserves ‘Smucker’s’ flavored jelly, and then offered me one and I then had one as well. Maw Maw is in contact with her oldest daughter Vicky, daily, and comes over to help her sometimes and takes her out shopping. Maw Maw gave her car away a few years ago, to her son and oldest child Michael’s wife, and has said that she had regretted the decision of giving it away, and wishes she had of kept it. One of the reasons she said why she gave it away is for Michael’s wife to drive him over to visit her, since he can’t drive himself because he's partially blind, so she would have to take him. But Maw Maw said that she hasn’t taken him here for a long time, which is why she said she regrets giving it up.
Maw Maw just woken up, and I have just greeted her an told her good morning. I heard a noise coming from her bedroom from her and went to go check on her and she was now awake as record here below. See by clicking the link and watch on YouTube. Click on the word “video” to watch
As you can see in the video recently waken Maw Maw lie in bed, with that cat lying next to her, that I was talking about earlier. I asked her if she slept well and she said that she didn’t sleep that good most of the might that well and was thinking about the recent loss of her neighbor ‘Connie’, who her and some of her family was close to.
What Maw Maw is doing today after she got up
After Maw Maw got up, she talked about her neighbor that just died and the memories she left behind. Maw Maw is folding up some of the grocery bags she has, and ‘fixing’ them. Her and Fran, both collaborate together to make blankets and mats for the homeless and ones in need of them. Maw Maw folds and connects them together to make balls, and Fran crochets them at the catholic church. Maw Maw’s says they cover up with them and the water don’t go through them. And she said that it also “keeps the landfill getting full of bags”, so that’s another advantage of it. I ordered a supreme pizza with light sauce, (because too much sauce doesn’t go well for her) and an order of breadsticks from our local Pizza Hut, and it just arrived.
Copy and paste of things I wrote down about Maw Maw on 9/27/2023 (some things edited)
Today’s date, at the start of writing this is 9–27–2023.
My great grandmother Maw Maw is 92 (almost 93) at the present time of writing this. The commence of Maw Maw’s life was on October 25, 1930. Maw Maw’s mother passed away when she was just 6 or 7. Maw Maw was born in Virginia and was raised in North Carolina. Maw Maw’s father is John Robert Lentz. He lived long enough to sign Maw Maw’s birth certificate and name her ‘Margaret’. He passed away just a few days after Maw Maw was born. He died from kidney poisoning based from her memory. Her aunt came in from Greensboro, NC, following her mother's death. Her mother's parents took care of Maw Maw. There was never a photo taken of her father, but she was told that her uncle is the closest description of her father's appearance. Uncle Wilson was her mother's brother. Maw Maw was very close to her mother's parents, her grandparents who raised Maw Maw. Maw Maw’s aunt couldn’t have and kids, so it was the original plan to give Maw Maw to them after her mother and father both deceased when Maw Maw was very young, Maw Maw was close to her brother, named after her father. He died in Massachusetts.
Her brother’s children wanted to take Maw Maw, their aunt out to eat when their father was dying. Maw Maw used to keep in touch with her brother’s 4 boys but says she hasn’t for a while. Maw Maw said she distinctly recalls her brother’s final moments; he pulled her close to him and said “sis, I love you.” before he passed.
Maw Maw and her brother John Robert Lentz Jr, were very close and were born by the same mother and father. Maw Maw had a half sister Mary Francis Thomas from the same mother Martha Jane Lentz (Thomas).
Her brother’s boys gave Maw Maw some pictures of their recently deceased father, throughout his life and when he was in service in the military, in which her brother’s wife got into Maw Maw’s suitcase and destroyed them, ripping them up at she apparently had grievance (or “beef”) with her husband.
World War II. “What do you remember when WWII started, Maw Maw?”:
She said her brother was on the front lines during the start of WWII. He was around Germany (unknown if he was in Germany or just around the country.)
Maw Maw’s grandparents received a telegram that her uncle was killed when he was in WWII. He ended up being just injured. Her grandparents were saddened when they received they telegram about her uncle’s fake passing. Maw Maw says her grandfather that helped raise her always hid his feelings and went off in his “lil ol’ car” with a rumble seat in it, to emancipate and release them. Her grandmother often disclosed them and showed grief when she was sad.
Maw Maw’s grandmother was in a way a strict woman who was raised with a bunch of boys. Her grandmother “knocked the daylight” out of Maw Maw’s grandfather when he’d come home drinking moonshine and licker. Maw Maw said her grandmother one day smelled that her grandfather was drinking and once knocked a gold tooth out that they never did find. “We don’t have no drinking around here”, Maw Maw recalls her grandmother saying to her husband.
When Maw Maw was age, give or take 36 or 38, according to her, she says she’ll always remember when her grandmother hit her so hard one day, Maw Maw says she “saw stars”. It was because Maw Maw said “oh shit!” in response to her finding her first son taking apart one of her very old watches that used to belong to her mother.
When her grandfather died during a time of racism in America, an African American who had worked with Maw Maw’s grandfather kept coming up on the sidewalk, outside of her grandmother and deceased grandfather’s house with his head down, praying and paying respects to her deceased grandfather. Maw Maw’s uncle came out to address him and asked if he was alright, in which he explained that he worked with Maw Maw’s grandfather and was really going to miss him. Her uncle insisted that he come inside to see Maw Maw’s deceased grandfather, in which the African American repeatedly refused as he stated he wasn’t supposed to have any association with the whites, particularly in the south in which this had transpired from. He eventually came in, standing overhead of his co-worker, Maw Maw’s grandfather’s dead body for what Maw Maw described to be a long time, paying respects and was saddened by his passing.
My Poppy (1931–2011),
Jimmy Swick Jr. is Maw Maw’s and Poppy’s deceased son. Maw Maw said she will never forget when her son Jimmy was playing baseball and her husband, my great grandfather Poppy, coached the team. On one day Jimmy Jr. got hit by a baseball by another kid, in which almost knocked him down and he fell on the ground then got right back up and said that he was through with it, in which Poppy said, “no you’re not!” and made him continue the rest of the game. Jimmy Jr. (which is my uncle) was so upset and filled with rage, that he pitched the next three batters out. Poppy said, “we’ll have to make you mad more often”, according to Maw Maw.
Maw Maw’s “love at first sight”:
Maw Maw got her nose broken one night when she was in a car with her then-husband at the time, who she had her first new-born child, Michael with and one of his friends. She said she was in between the two of them. They met up with some random guy that Maw Maw never met, and she didn’t know or understand what was said between them. But, in one swift action the random guy hit her then-husband in the face, and it came back and hit Maw Maw in her nose. She didn’t realize it was actually broken until the next morning when her uncle noticed her face all swollen. She later found out her husband was an undercover drug dealer and was selling drugs. She told me at that moment, her remark to her then-husband after the incident was, “it’s over, I’m through with it, and I’m not takin’ my kid through all this bull crap.” She left her husband, in which Maw Maw doesn’t recall his name. Maw Maw and her oldest son, Michael’s father met in Michigan. Maw Maw was working for a place in North Carolina and was only making money just in small tips, so she was then offered to come up with her aunt who was in Michigan to get a better paying job, in which she did. Which is where she met her first husband and had Michael.
When Maw Maw was in her late teens or 20’s she met my great grandfather Poppy for the first time in a greyhound bus that she got on to in Michigan. Poppy lived in Ohio and got on the bus in Columbus according to Maw Maw’s remembrance. They were both headed to North Carolina. Maw Maw got on the bus in Michigan, as she had a job there, and worked at a drugstore. She got on the bus to go back to her home in North Carolina. When the bus stopped somewhere in Kentucky to eat, Poppy came up to Maw Maw and offered to pay for breakfast. Maw Maw wasn’t hungry. She politely declined and just had a cup of coffee because she didn’t typically eat breakfast. After everyone got back on the bus, Poppy and Maw Maw talked. It turned out, Poppy was seeing a girl who he was at the time “dating”, who happened to coincidentally live just a few houses down to Maw Maw’s aunts house in North Carolina. When telling me this, she says that it was probably “meant to be.” She describes it as “love at first sight.”
Maw Maw’s near-death experience:
“If my work is done, take me know, if not help me fight whatever that’s going on in my body” was Maw Maw’s prayer to God, as she has always been highly religious and loyal to God. Maw Maw had a heart attack according to doctors. She said she’s “livin’ on a prayer”, as everyone she knew braced themselves for her death when she had her heart attack when I was just really young. Maw Maw says every time she sees the doctor who helped treat her during her near-death shakes his head and says “I don’t know what happened.” and “I didn’t save her.” Maw Maw recalls him saying “she was dying” because her kidneys were rapidly shutting down.
Maw Maw claims she, more or less, was in a coma, “in and out” and heard people around her when the doctors said she was dying. She says she remembers the ambulance that took her to Mansfield, Ohio. She says she likes to “live day to day and take what comes.” Right after the death of my Poppy (Jimmy M. Swick), her husband in January 2011, she says she didn’t want to live anymore and wanted to go with him and her deceased son, my uncle Jimmy M. Swick Jr. who passed in 2009.
Maw Maw’s aunt loved pig feet. She went to live with her aunt when her mother died, but she said she wasn’t happy there. So, she was mostly raised with her grandmother and grandfather. Her brother and half-sister also lived there. Her brother lived there until he went to serve in the military, at just the age of 17. You weren’t supposed to join unless you were over the age of 18, especially during a world war. Her aunt falsified the documents and said that he was 18, when he wasn’t. He wanted to follow suit after his 3 uncles, who also were in service in the military. Maw Maw and her brother’s grandmother was furious at their aunt for signing the papers for him to go in. “You had no business doing that. He’s too young.”. Maw Maw says her grandmother said.
