My great-grandmother was an unintentionally hilarious woman. In her later years, senility set in and her daughter moved in with her to take care of her. Eventually, my grandparents built on an apartment, connected by a breeze way, to the main house. It was perfect for her with a little livingroom, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. There was a mailbox by the backdoor where grandma would leave letters and packages for her mother. It's the little things that brought her joy.

My great-grandmother would wander back and forth between the main house and her apartment. When I would visit, I got two grandmas for the price of one.

One visit in particular will always stand out in my memory. My friend and I were staying the weekend at grandma's house. We were in my cousin's room playing playstation and I had to use the bathroom. There was a half-bath in my cousin's room and I ran to use it. In my haste to get back to the game, I knocked big hair tie thing into the toilet. I pannicked. I thought she was going to be so mad at me. I just knocked her hair thingy into a toilet full of pee. I later learned that it wasn't her hair thing, it was one of her friends, so I was safe, but at the time I didn't know so I grabbed the dry edge of the hair thingy and ran to the livingroom looking for Grandma. There I stood holding up a wet hair thingy looking around for Grandma when my great-grandmother came toddling in.

She asked me what I was doing and I said, "Looking for Grandma."

"Well, I'm right here."

"No, the other grandma."

"Oh, I think she walked someone out. What you need, sweetie?"

"I knocked Amy's hair thing into the toilet and I don't know how to clean it."

"Oh, well just set it on the counter and she can wash it when she gets back in."

"No, Grandma, we eat there!"

I heard my friend laughing from my cousin's room. That phrase would be a source of laughter for years to come, but it was true. We did eat there. This was one of those kitchens that is very open to the livingroom. It had a bar or counter all the way around the kitchen with bar stools. It was kind of like being in a dinner with a counter you can sit at to order and eat your food. I was not going to set a pee-pee hair thingy where I set my plate and silverware.

My great-grandmother just looked at me and said, "Oh...well here just give it to me then." I held the hair thingy out so she could grab that little dry edge, as I had already told her it had been in a toilet full of pee. She reached out and grabbed the whole thing with her hand and squished it around in her hand and said, "Oh, it's wet..."

"Yeah, Grandma, it has been in the toilet."

"Oh...oh.."

She had a look on her face that said, "eww," but she just turned and headed back to her apartment and I returned to the video game. Later, discussing the events with my grandma about the exchange with my great-grandmother, I learned that my great-grandmother took the hair thing, washed it in her kitchen sink and then headed back to the main house and met Grandma coming in through the breeze way. She handed it to her and said, "Here, hunnie, I washed this," then turned and went back to her apartment with no context. My grandma was so confused until I told her the rest of the story.