Waitin' on a Woman

A clear memory of my grandfather is his presence on a bench at the Blue Ridge Mall, sitting while he waited on my grandmother and their daughters to shop (mostly at The Jones Store, with some JC Penneys thrown in). There he sat, in the company of other men his age who had in little in common beyond their antipathy to accompanying the ladies on their acquisitional excursions. But their similar circumstances made enough shared interest for conversation. Primarily about sports, tools, projects and probably the general state of things -- which was most likely not what it used to be.

Brad Paisley recorded a song with this theme that brings my grandfather's image to mind whenever I hear it, called "Waitin' on a Woman." In it, an older man strikes up a conversation with a younger one when both are in pretty much the position my grandfather and his companions experienced, and the older man recounts how he has waited on his wife on different occasions through most of their time together. Paisley's 2008 version of the song includes Andy Griffith's spoken-word reading of some of the lines including the idea that if he dies first, which he's heard men tend to do, he imagines he'll spend the first part of his days in eternity waiting on his wife, who won't be quite ready yet.

Saturday evening, my grandfather's final wait ended as my grandmother left the world that has been her home for the last 104 years to enter the home not made by hands. Rest in peace, Fay.