Bodil Margareth Larsen
My Grandma. She could be the bitchiest, a real witch... She had this dark side and she could make you feel like the smallest piece of dirt on the ground. But more often than not, she was the kindest, most caring and generous person I've ever known. She made a difference. She made the world a better place to live for many people. When my mom, uncle and aunt grew up she took care of their friends. When they had a rough time at home, or their families didn't have money for food or clothes, she invited them into her home, fed them, and put clothes on their neglected bodies. She kept on doing so when my generation grew up as well, took care of my brother's friends, and my cousin's friends. Kids in the neighborhood have always been welcome in grandpa and her house. She never had much money, but she would give away everything she had to help people, to make them feel better. She had a saying: "Nothing comes to a closed hand". The curch was full of people in her funeral.
She was wise. A smart woman who understood a lot of things about the world, and the people in it. She was open minded; she wasn't - like many old people - afraid of new things.
She never wore flowery skirts; she wore jeans and trousers in general.
She enjoyed rap, hip-hop, dance and so on, as much as she enjoyed the music that she grew up with.
She watched "The Osbournes", absolutely loved it, especially Sharon, and she even had Ozzie-slippers. She actually reminds me a bit of Sharon, or, the other way around.
She watched Ricky Lake and Jerry Springer, and yelled at the TV because people are so stupid.
She watched boxing, and scary movies.
February 14th she called her "kids" and us grandchildren and wished us a great day.
She was crazy about stuffed animals, and she had a lot of them around the house.
She refused to join us for Christmas Eve if there were no Santa. My grandpa had to be Santa every year. Even when the youngest one in our family was 16 years old... But you know what? We all enjoyed it. When grandpa came into the room dressed up as Santa, we were all like little children again. It was great! It really was Santa, not grandpa. Strange thing.
When my mom got sick she was in the hospital for a long time. Every night my grandma called the nurses and asked them to say good night to my mom. My mom was in a coma.
She loved animals.
She told dirty jokes. Really dirty ones. One could start thinking that she was a rough sailor in her younger years...
Nobody could tell her to act her age. Just like when she was a girl she did what she wanted.
I wish I knew more about her life, I think a lot of interesting things happened to her. When she was a kid she refused to wear dresses, she wanted to wear jeans. Her mother let her. Only problem was her younger brother. They were really close, they did everything together. So when she wore jeans, he wore dresses. Their mother let him, but only around the house...
I know she was a lot in Sweden as a young woman. And I have relatives there. I don't know what she was doing there, but my mom mentioned something many years ago... She was dating a diplomat and everything was extremely hush-hush. I wish I knew more about that. And more about who she was, growing up. I guess I'll never find out. But I keep a part of her deep in my soul, she is a part of me, and we are quite alike. She gave me so much, and I will do the best I can with it. I was lucky to have her in my life, and lucky that she was there to make an impact on me.
