The To Do List

Tacked to the back of the pantry door were several sheets of pale blue stationery - short grocery lists, names and telephone numbers, recipes and reminders, a list of birthdays. All were handwritten except one which was neatly typed, double spaced and titled - "Things To Do Today". It read:

Keep your head.
Mind your tongue.
Hold your temper.
Count your change.
Check your compass.
Don't settle.
Get up each time you fall.
Know when to walk away.

I read it twice, imagining my grandmother at the small breakfast table, thinking it through before typing it up on her small portable Remington typewriter, choosing what she thought of as the most important instructions then condensing, simplifying, and posting it where she would see it every day. The paper was faded, its edges worn and a little ragged but it was a good list - straightforward, clean and direct. It was hard to think of a situation where following its wisdom wouldn't help.

Nana had been an eminently practical woman, prone to approach problems head on and at full speed, hardly one to take philosophical or tactful detours, never one to seek self help. The to do list seemed out of character for her and I began to wonder if it had been more of a goal, something she could strive for in her everyday life.

I was carefully taking the list down when I noticed the handwritten postscript at the bottom of the page - Practice makes perfect! she had added in small, precise letters and underlined the words with a feathery flourish.

Leave it to a grandmother to surprise you in life and death.