My paternal grandmother was raised in a small town in Pennsylvania, attended church weekly, and knew the Bible well. Her christening certificate hangs on the wall in a spare bedroom. She wore a housecoat every morning for preparing and eating breakfast and doing the morning cleaning chores, changing into a dress and nylon stockings held up with garters every day until she passed. Pants were only worn when she was at Grandfather’s cabin in Goldpoint, Nevada, where he was working his mining claim. She gave every appearance of being a proper Christian woman. I never realized how truly diabolical she was until about 30 years after she died.
Never one to be idle, even when arthritic knees limited mobility, Grandma spent most every evening crocheting while she and my grandfather watched TV. Hee Haw, Sanford and Son, All in the Family, the Carol Burnett Show, Lawrence Welk. I’m not sure what else was on the weekly lineup. Anyway, one year my sisters and I received matching sweater vests for Christmas. Lime green with a cute lion’s face occupying the center. She put in so much work on those, which I recognized even then as a young child, but there was no way we could wear them, ever. The first reason was covered with the description. The second? We lived in Southern California. We never wore any kind of sweater, ever.
Most of the time she made blankets, which were much more appreciated. All the leftover yarn ended up in her yarn basket. And every once in a while, she’d bring out the basket for me to untangle all the yarn balls. For some reason, it never occurred to me to wonder how those balls became all tangled in the first place. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized it was her way of teaching me persistence and how to finish a difficult and often boring task. Diabolical.
She was the first in the family to graduate from college, I believe it was Slippery Rock Teacher’s College or something like that in Pennsylvania. And she taught elementary school for about 20 years before marrying my grandfather and moving to Southern California. While California wouldn’t accept her Pennsylvanian teaching degree, she was still the teacher. And most trips to Grandma’s house involved a few games of Yahtzee or dominoes. She made me add up my own scores. And then she had the audacity to make me add up her scores. Diabolical.
Those were just a couple of things I learned from my grandmother. She had limitations, but she still had so much to offer.
We’ll all be old someday. We may not be able to see or shoot straight. My guess is that I won’t move too quickly. Maybe I’ll have arthritis. I read of seniors worried about being a burden when society collapses. As I contemplate what the elderly can contribute, I think about those verses in 1 Corinthians 12 about all parts of the body being important. The reference, of course, is to all members of the church being important and having valuable contributions to make.
Our elders may not be physically able to chop wood or haul water, but there are still so many essential ways they can contribute.
Childcare
Parents will need to know—know—that their children are being cared for by a loving family member so that they can perform the other essentials in life—gardening, security, shelter, and so forth. Grandparents can entertain and distract children from the difficulties surrounding them.
Education
Consider that formal education may go by the wayside for a time. Parents’ time for homeschooling may be limited. I well remember how difficult it was to educate my family while doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning—and that was with all the kilowatt slaves doing their part. If we’re doing everything by hand, we’ll need outside help. In a collapsed society, when it comes to able bodies, it will definitely be a time of all hands on deck. Educating the children may well fall to the less able-bodied. Reading stories will be huge, especially to a generation who suddenly loses their electronic pacifiers. And then children need to be taught how to read. They must learn math. They’ll need to be taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, science, health, gardening, and so much more.
Listening
TEOTWAWKI will be stressful. Teens will be especially vulnerable, as well as all those people on anxiety medications and anti-depressants. They will need someone to talk to, a listening ear. Elderly folks have a certain wisdom that comes with age. And they aren’t usually in a rush. And they’re often content to listen and empathize well. In nice weather, a garden bench provides a comfortable place to visit while also offering time in nature, which research has revealed to benefit all people, but particularly those under stress.
Clothing
Clothing has historically been women’s work partially because it is less physically demanding. While raising and spinning fiber into yarn may not be necessary, altering and mending clothes definitely will be. Children will be growing. People will be losing weight. The essential work of making clothes fit can be done in a chair. And so can teaching those skills to others.
Food preparation
So much time goes into meal preparation. And often much of the essential task of making dinner can be delegated to someone who is mobility-restricted. Chopping onions, shelling peas, kneading bread, trimming beans. Elders can supervise canning and dehydrating and introduce younger people to these essential skills.
And there are probably a hundred other skills they can teach and ways they can contribute to the success of our families when life gets interesting. They’ve got so much to teach us that we’ll consider ourselves blessed to have them in our groups.
