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My mommy and daddy bought me the album of Hans Christian Anderson's stories. I devoured every one of the stories. I remember standing next to the ironing board looking at the book and watching the record go around and around and my imagination seemed to travel into places that I had never seen. Hans and I became great friends and companions through those albums. My absolute favorite was "The Little Matchgirl". She died in the cold, in the arms of her dearly departed grandmother, who had come from heaven to take her out of the cold cruel world. What a beautiful story and how, my 5 year old mind could imagine the cold and the freezing limbs of this poor orphan and her loving grandmother warming her, in carrying her to heaven. I had that kind of loving grandmother and I always looked at her with longing eyes like that. Our gaze into eachother's eyes always said, I will come and get you, if ever you are dying in the cold, alone. Neither of us were alone or destitute, still love was the theme of our relationship. When you love someone so much, you long for more of them. More time, more understanding, there is never enough grand-time for a doting grandmother on her grand daughter, I suppose.
Today is my Grandma's birthday. She would have been in her 90's, maybe 93 or 95. I loved her so much and she gave me so much of herself. Beautiful and glamorous, she was. Always full of some lesson or another, that was pragmatic and useful.
Such a beautiful and loving woman in my life and I will always love her.
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Audiovox recordings of Hans Christian Anderson, at this link
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