My grandma’s mind is fuzzy. Doctors call it dementia but I call it the fuzziness that comes and goes. She can be completely lucid one minute and yelling that the caregivers are stealing her denture cream the next. We put the cream in her hand but she can’t see and can’t hear so she continues to complain that “They’re stealing it.”

She has a new tracheotomy tube and can’t remember what it is so she keeps trying to pull it out. We have been to the hospital twice in the last week trying to get it back in. She has had the tube for 64 years, since she was pregnant with my mom and her twin Patty-Jo but she can’t remember it’s there.

She brightens up for book events, when she’s physically capable of going. She loves to meet fans and have people tell her how great she is. I live for the smile she gets when she talks to the audience about her past. She brightens up and becomes the Southern belle that everyone loves.

Posted by “Little” Eva (Eva Rutland’s granddaughter)