Wednesday, April 9, 2014

H is for Hazel


Hurricane Hazel, they called her, but my grandma was nothing like the 1954 killer storm that commuted from the tropics all the way up the eastern seaboard to Toronto. It was the worst storm that city ever had, and even though it happened 60 years ago, folks round those parts still recall the devastation.

I guess the thing that storm had in common with Grandma was its sheer velocity. Hazel Hooper never did anything slow. She drove like a lunatic. She cooked and cleaned like a tornado. Her hands moved quick, as she talked, a trait my mom used to say I shared with her. The older I get, though, the slower I get, but as far as I can remember, Hazel never did slow down, not until the very end, not until she lay in a coma in a hospital bed.

Anybody who knows me knows that an important part of my novel, Green Eggs & Weezie, takes part at my grandparents' farm in Buttonville, Ontario. It was a magical place, when I was growing up. That big house. Those open fields, just begging to be explored. My grandpa, sitting back on the fainting couch in the kitchen, listening to CFRB and watching Grandma cook.


Both my grandparents are long dead and their farm is now part of an industrial park, the house torn down and replaced by an ugly office building.

In Weezie, the farmhouse is still standing – decrepit but still there – and my title character stays there for a while, licking her wounds and beginning to heal with the help of memories and the "ghost" of her Grandma Bean.

Grandma Bean is a homage to my real grandma, a woman as sturdy and smart as she needed to be, raising five kids, cooking for a house full of hired farmhands, and smiling pretty as she had to do, being the wife of a local politician.

Grandma Bean, to me, is the best and the sweetest part of my book, because she was just like Hurricane Hazel, one of the best and sweetest women I ever had the great honour to know.

Here's a quick excerpt, one of my favourite bits. My grandma used to take mid-morning coffee and snacks to the men working in the fields. She'd fill old corn syrup cans with coffee, tea and water, and she'd pack egg salad and roast beef sandwiches in Tupperware containers, and she'd rush it all out to the fields in her Chrysler New Yorker, a car the size of a small ocean liner.

"Weezie never forgot the sound of the bottom of that New Yorker, scraping against the sharp tops of freshly cut straw. It was a huge rushing noise, like a waterfall if you were standing right next to it. It was so loud she could barely carry on a conversation with Grandma Bean, who was basically yelling at Weezie about mundane matters like what the weather was going to be the next day or what kind of pie Weezie liked best. They didn’t have seat belts back in those days and Weezie bounced around on the front seat, holding on to whatever she could while she kept her eye on Grandma Bean wheeling that big old boat of a car around with her heavy arms poking out of her housedress. She had an apron on, too, she always had an apron, Weezie had forgotten about that, and the apron strings were flapping in the breeze from the open windows and Grandma Bean’s home permanent was all askew, sticking to her sweaty forehead in the front and flying around at the back."

Grandma holds my cousin Debi
(I'm pretty sure that's her), while my Uncle Charles goofs around
in the background. Notice the crystal doorknob? It's mentioned
in my book, too.

27 comments:

  1. Even I remember that house and all it's magic. We were so small but we could still feel the genuine warmth and love that filled the kitchen, along with a lot of wonderful food for a little girl!

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  2. A picture to attach to the memory of that loving character from your book!

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  3. She even looks full of energy when she's sitting down.

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  4. Great post, Cathy! Your grandmother has such a great name - Hazel Hooper. :)

    Madeline @ The Shellshank Redemption
    Minion, Capt. Alex's Ninja Minion Army
    The 2014 Blogging from A-Z Challenge

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  5. Hello fellow minion! *waving*
    The name Hazel Hooper has a certain ring... like a force to be reckoned with!
    Great excerpt too!
    Writer In Transit

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  6. I'm sorry the house is long gone, but that was a sweet touch adding it to your story. Your grandmother sounds like a character. A very fast moving one, of course.

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  7. So true Cathy. She could work rings around me and would tell me I had one speed and it was slow. We can't all be hurricanes. Enjoyed this so much. Thanks

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  8. Moving and stirring as always Cathy, what a sweet woman Grandma was. Thank you for this.xo

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  9. So wonderful to carry on their memories through stories. Indeed Hazel sounds like the woman of another century who knew not the word "slow down."
    hopeful for spring

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  10. I never knew any of my grandparents and you are the second blogger this morning to make me feel that loss. Keenly. I hope you are ashamed of yourself (not).

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  11. I feel like I know her just from your description. Thank you for letting us see a part of your life. So cool

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  12. What an amazing woman! You were so lucky to have her for a grandmother!

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  13. Beautiful post. I have some money in my Amazon account, so I'll be buying Green Eggs and Weezie.

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  14. A grandmother like that is a treasure to have.

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  15. Awesome memories and lovely pictures. I loved hearing about her. You were lucky to have her as a grandma. ♥

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  16. Aw, your post makes me miss my grandma. Great pictures!

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  17. Loved your book and your Grandma Bean "character'. Hearing that she was based on your real grandma, makes it even better! My grandma was my best friend, and a true maverick. She taught me so much. Don't know where we would be without the strong women who went before us, showing us the "way". Beautiful pics and tribute Cathy.

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  18. Women like our grandma's will never be found again! True strength, courage, and love along with feminism, kindness and that wonderful lack of judgement!

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  19. That excerpt makes me want to buy the book, but it isn't yet in kindle form. Will it be?

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    1. Yes, River. You're in Australia, right? You can go to Amazon in Australia to find it. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com.au/Green-Eggs-Weezie-Cathy-Olliffe-Webster-ebook/dp/B00FL7Y27O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397135575&sr=8-1&keywords=Green+Eggs+%26+Weezie

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  20. There's a bumper sticker I see from time to time, "Well-behaved women seldom make history." Yup. It's the Hazels, the Grandma Beans, my Grandma drinking beer and telling dirty jokes, that we'll always remember.

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  21. Ok so you've made me cry at my desk! Where did you get those awesome pictures! I love the one of Grandma and Grandpa, he looks like he was born 80! Chas looks like the cut up he was when we were kids. And I so loved that rocking chair. I wonder who has it? But the pic of Hazel at 80 is the best!
    Thanks for this Cathy. You know I have read Weezie 4 times and I will read it many more. I am so proud of you for putting these memories on paper. Love ya lots.

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  22. It must be grand to have good memories of family and childhood - so few people do.
    the Ol'Buzzard

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  23. I followed the link to your book and was asked to transfer my digital Amazon account to the Australian one, did that, clicked on the book to buy, then got some weird instruction that I had to choose an application for it to download. I have no idea what that even means, so I switched back to the USA Amazon account and bought it there. So now I've bought two copies, but can only access one. I'll stick with the USA account and pay the exchange rate fees.

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