Memory Monday

This is not the best picture in the world of my Grandma and Grandpa Brugger but it will do for todays purposes.  My mother had pretty poor health my whole life.  When she would end up in the hospital when we lived in Texas the first time, my Grandma and Grandpa Brugger would come and stay with us.  I remember Grandpa spending time with me everyday after school drilling me for my spelling tests and listening to me as I read.  


During the time that this picture was taken we were in Germany.  We had thought we were going to lose Grandma to guilliain barre syndrome.  She was in the hospital for weeks and in therapy for months.  By the time we put her on the plane to fly back to the states, she had braces on her legs and could walk with two crutches.  Eventually she could walk on her own again.    My time with Grandpa in Germany was spent on Math.  This was a totally frustrating time for Grandpa, my parents and me.  We did not understand that I was dys-calculate and that numbers and symbols were flipping on me.  I would do my math problems and have grandpa check them.  He at first would accuse me of guessing at the answers until I explained how I came to the answers.  He was the first to realize I was not seeing the same thing on the page he was seeing.  Working with Grandpa was kind of my sanctuary during a time when my teacher and parents were puzzled with me.  I was the top student in my reading and spelling group and the bottom student in the lowest math group.  No one knew then that there was such a thing as dyslexia and dysgraphia or other learning problems.  It was cut and dried.  You were mentally retarded or you weren't.  I wasn't mentally retarded so there had to be other problems.  It was suggested I visit a psychiatrist and maybe he could figure out why I was failing math and Bob wasn't doing well in reading.  We will just leave it at - the problem was not psychiatric and in fact that psychiatrist may have done more harm than good to our family that lasted for years.  Grandpa once again intervened and said that I just needed to do things at my own pace.  One day Math would be my favorite subject.  Well he was wrong about that but he was right that I did better in school once everyone got off my back.  My Grandpa Brugger was a very wise man and very important to me as I grew up.