Grandmother enjoyed 'torture' in good fun

I have the key to annoying a 92-year-old woman: put her name in a song, then sing it around her all day.

link Christina Calloway

That would most likely annoy anyone, but this particular woman is resilient, a hard one to crack, and she is also my grandmother.

While I was home for the Christmas holiday, I spent one day with her, my brother and uncle Dennis. We started our day with an excursion to the San Francisco Public Library downtown where my grandma and father were featured in an exhibit about Filipino-Americans in the Bay Area.

My grandma’s photo of her working as an administrative assistant at the U.S. Mint decades ago was recreated with a younger Filipina woman in a similar pose in modern clothes.

We started showering my grandma with compliments and jokes. In Tagalog, her native language, Lola means grandma, but when I was a baby, I pronounced it “Lala.” It stuck with her and the rest of the grandkids.

I realized “Lala” fits perfectly with the beginning melody of “My Girl” by the Temptations. I began singing it, and my brother and uncle quickly chimed in. Every time she said something “Oh Lala” worthy, it started again.

The song followed her to the San Francisco Marina, the Chinese restaurant we ate dinner at, and during a round of Uno.

Through laughter, she kept saying we were singing because we’re out to get her, but I think she enjoyed the all-day torture.

Christina Calloway writes for Clovis Media Inc.