my grandmother's favorite story

My grandmother, my mom's mom, is named Josephine Lacey Moselli. She is Italian, extremely fiesty and suffers from alzheimers. However, her long term memory is fully intact. I know this because everytime I see her she tells me the same 3 or 4 stories from her past. One is about how she met my grandfather....

A long time ago my grandmother was convinced to go on a blind date with her girlfriend's boyfriend's friend. They fell in love but shortly after they met my grandfather had to go to Germany for two years because he was in the service. My grandmother said that she liked him but didn't want to be tied down while they were in different countries and so young. She after all was an independent young go-getter with plenty of guys after her. She told him if when he came back and they still had feelings for each other it would work out. But in the meantime they'll write each other while he was in Germany. When she met him at the train station the day he returned, she said she knew at once she still loved him. Even though he had got chunky due to all the "good german food and beer". They decided to get married and elope but my grandfather wanted to move South to Savannah because jobs were more available there. But my grandmother had strict Italian parents who didn't approve of his Irish heritage to begin with. So my grandmother had a tough decision..leave her family to be with the one she loves...or stay with them and be miserable. She decided to elope with him and to this day she tells me it's her biggest regret. My grandparents had an amazing love for each other. It's apparent now even with my grandfather gone. Whenever she tells me she misses him it breaks my heart. She doesn't cry or get upset she just mentions it like she mentions the weather.

I didn't really change any parts to the story. I may have left some details out but not on purpose, just because I can't remember them all. My grandmother tells it the best because she tells it as if it was yesterday. I wouldn't want to alter any of the story anyways because to me it's beautiful and tells so much about my grandparents. Sanjay's retelling of the Ramayana is condensed and has a little bit of his own humor and commentary. I feel like I do this as well when telling storys. We don't tell them word for word, we pass on the story with our own language and story-telling style that varies from story to story. To me this story is humorous and sentimental and based on that, I tell it in a respectful yet light-hearted manner.