I’ve written quite a bit about my late Gram and how she inspires me – in fact, she was the subject of my last post (some time ago).
I’ve written about how she was a co-founder of a hiking club in the county where she lived. For a long time, I’d entertained the thought of joining the club. I had felt like I wanted to explore hiking more than I do, but I didn’t readily and/or conveniently have someone to do it with, and I’m too leery of trekking alone in potentially remote areas.
Well, I’m glad to report that I finally pulled the trigger and signed up. I’m not sure what took me so long, but I’m about the age she was when she helped start the club, and maybe subconsciously that had something to do with it.
When I mailed in the membership form, I did jot a note on it about my familial connection, knowing there are some members who date back to her time in the club (and even possibly to the founding). I was pleased that in my “Welcome” email, the membership chair, Loretta, added a personal note about how glad she was to see my connection and that she knew Gram.
I expected to feel a sense of pride (even small) in carrying on her legacy … but I didn’t expect to feel such strong emotions about it.
Soon after the “Welcome” email, I received an email from another member, Lynn (whose name I recognized), with a subject line “Irene’s granddaughter – how wonderful!” In the email, which made me burst into tears upon reading it, she talked so fondly of sharing club experiences with my grandmother but also mentioned how glowingly Gram had talked about me over the years, among other things saying that I was “athletic.” (More on that in a minute!) I was immensely touched by Lynn’s lovely email and said as much; she responded with a follow-up to ask if I was whether I was attending 1) the club’s 45th anniversary picnic soon and 2) and/or an anniversary repeat/revisit of the club’s very first hike (which Gram of course attended, with Lynn and her husband and others). I said I’d planned to attend the anniversary hike (sort of as a representative for my grandmother) and had been on the fence about the anniversary being such a new member, but with her kind words would plan to attend that as well, for the same reason.
It was only a week or so later that I attended my first hike, a generally easy one at a local reservoir park. I met Loretta, got reacquainted with Pat (another member I knew), and met other members, some of whom knew Gram (one even had a photo of her in her phone from a past event!) and some who didn’t. Although I had expected to meet people who knew her, I didn’t expect it to make me emotional, but it did. I was not surprised, though, when one of them told me how much Gram had inspired her.
A week later, I attended event #2 – this time, a bike ride on a riverside park towpath. My hubby, Chris, joined me as a guest. Driving to the meeting location, I remembered and recounted to him how Gram and I once went there for a bike ride of our own – and how it illustrated her spirit and zest for activity. (Here’s where the “Me? Athletic?” part comes in.)
When I was 23 or 24, I was not at all active and was overweight. My dad and I lived near the location of the above-mentioned event #2 bike ride. One weekend day, Gram (at the time in her early 70s) suggested that she and I go there for a ride. So we put our bikes on her car rack – mine a heavy beach cruiser, purchased when I went to college in Florida – and drove down to the nearby riverside park. As we were unloading our bikes, it started to lightly rain. “Oh, it’s not much,” she said. “Let’s ride!”
Off we went. Right away I was pretty miserable. The rain was hitting me in the face, making it hard to try and watch my way. Not too far into the ride, I hit a wet patch of leaves or some such and took a spill. I was NOT having a good time. Pretty soon I said I wanted to turn back, and we returned to the car. Gram said I could go ahead and take the car (with my bike loaded on), and she would ride her bike back. No argument from me. I went home and flopped on the couch, so “worn out” from my rainy short bike ride.
A while later, here came Gram. She had ridden somewhere between 5 and 6 miles to get back to my dad’s house, a good stretch of it uphill. And she arrived with a smile on her face and exuberance from her ride. I seem to recall that I felt slightly embarrassed at my failure to keep up, but I didn’t share her enthusiasm for such activity. (I wonder now what she thought at the time of my throwing in the towel so readily. Was she disappointed in me and/or that we couldn’t enjoy this activity together?)
As I told Chris this story, he found it very amusing but also nodded in affirmation of Gram’s spirit, having witnessed that himself many times.
Now, of course, many years later, I do enjoy and sometimes even crave such outings. I still tend to focus on walking more than biking but do enjoy both. The river towpath ride with the hiking club was wonderful – the weather couldn’t have been more perfect and I was thrilled to be outdoors soaking it in.
During a break in the ride (for ice cream, natch) I was talking with member Pat, who I’d known through Gram as well as through another organization. We were talking about Cycle Jersey, an event Gram (and Pat) used to do, where riders would traverse the state of New Jersey from northwestern top corner to bottom southeastern corner over the course of a week. Pat shared a story of how, one year, after they spent a good chunk of a day to arrive at the endpoint of Cape May, the two of them then rode their bikes back to Gram’s house – more than 80 miles in itself – into that evening!
As much as, once upon a time, I did not share Gram’s love of outdoor activity, I’m glad to say that I do now – and that I was able to share a little of it with her. I will be proud to carry on her legacy with the hiking club and exercise – no pun intended – the spirit of the example she set. I just wish I caught the bug earlier and shared trails with her, rather than now following in her footsteps alone.
(P.S. I wrote that last line, and then looked at my last post, which was about a hike I took in honor of Gram in 2022. My last line then is almost the same: “I just wish we’d done more hiking together and that I shared her outdoors spirit earlier in life.” Gram, I’m trying to make up for it.)
Walk With Joelle 