Mi abuela no sabe quién soy

Iva Bezinovic-haydon
Editorial Malinc


Mi abuela Zrinka siempre decía Si todo. Acampábamos y escalábamos montañas, corríamos y andábamos en bicicleta. Nadábamos en lo más hondo del mar. Construíamos escondites en lo más secreto y hacíamos casas para los insectos con cajas de zapatos. Ella tejía jerséis de lana siguiendo mis ideas, hacíamos juguetes con vasos de yogur y organizábamos espectáculos de títeres en el jardín. Viajábamos en tren, en avión, en barco. Dibujábamos comics, leíamos el periódico, escribíamos cuentos. ¡Para ella nada era imposible! Mi abuela sabia y podía hacerlo todo. Hasta que un día ya no pudo. Hablar de enfermedad y muerte siempre es difícil y doloroso. El cuento Mi abuela no sabe quién soy, acerca a los niños los temas de la vejez y la muerte, vinculándolos con la memoria y el amor a través de la descripción de una tierna relación entre una niña, Ema, y su abuela Zrinka, quien de repente empieza olvidar las cosas y las personas.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Bul qu Today I want to tellyou a story. My grandmother doesn'
t know who I' m dedicatedto all those grandparents and all those grandmothers

(00:26):
who still accompany us, even ifthey' re not with us. Grandma
makes me crepe, Grandma look howlong I can hold my breath. Grandma,
tonight we' re sleeping in atent in the middle of the garden.

(00:50):
Grandma danced why. My synca grandmotheralways said everything. We camped,
caled, ran, rode a bike, built a secret hiding place and made
a home so that insects could livein it. My grandmother didn' t

(01:14):
love knitting Hersey de Lana, makingtoys with yogurt glasses and organizing puppet shows
in the garden, traveling by plane, by train, by boat, drawing,
reading and writing stories. For me, my grandmother was doing everything.

(01:37):
Nothing was impossible. For my grandmotherI knew and could conceive everything she intended
until one day she could no longer. First she started asking me weird things
where my glasses are, my daughter, what the neighbor' s last name
is and you still go to schoolin the morning or afternoon. And then

(01:59):
I started forgetting more important things aboutthe day of the week we were in,
or when it was Dad' sbirthday or if he had taken the
pills in the morning. How couldyou not know that? I told her
not to play with that, Grandma. It' s not funny and I

(02:20):
was angry with my grandmother, buton Monday, one Monday, I couldn
' t remember where we were goinghome from downtown, even though we were
doing that road almost every day.One Wednesday he poured detergent instead of oil
into the frying pan. I thoughtit was very funny to eat soap-
flavored crepe, but Grandma. Grandmawas very angry. I get it myself.

(02:46):
Soon the buttons became too complicated forher. He was afraid to repair
himself in the shower and forgot howto hold the knife properly. When Grandma
moved to Old Man' s residence, we used to visit her every Saturday.

(03:07):
My history of school and playground madeher happy, but she always asked
me the same questions and sometimes ina row I tried to answer her patiently.
It seemed like I was the adultand my grandmother was the girl,
but she was laughing. He laugheda lot. One Saturday I went to

(03:30):
visit her with my father. Grandmalooked at him with interest and then asked
for his name. I didn't recognize him. I' ve never
seen Dad cry like he did thatday at the bank in front of Old
Man' s residence. I wantedto cry too. While we were sitting
there in silence. I thought howstrange and empty it would be to live

(03:54):
without the synca grandmother all of asudden, Dad said he knows what else
he ends up or to remember meremember when we were with Max and Grandma
taking a walk around the lake whenMax threw himself on it and threw it
to the ground. Yes, ofcourse, it was our dog, which
was huge. She played like ababy and Grandma couldn' t stop laughing.

(04:17):
While Max licked her face and everyonepassing by looked at Grandma and looked
at Max Dad and I laughing intears. I was happy and sad at
the same time. Then we cameback and told Grandma what happened to Max
that day. I loved laughing withmy grandmother, even when she didn'

(04:45):
t know who she was, becauseI' ll always remember who she was.
M ri musco