For me, thoughts of my Grandma were almost always centered around the Red House,

whether I was surrounded by my older cousins, or just me and Grandma hanging out

Grandma was always there for me, there was no maybe,
You can etch that in stone, I was Grandma’s baby

All my favorite moments as a child happened at the Red House

Whether it was camping out in the backyard, playing smut, or spoons, or enacting one of my older cousins imagined cartoons

Reminiscing in detail Susie was always there, not quite in front and center, but in the background somewhere

Susie was the epitome of Black Girl Magic if you ask me. 

Every time she was around, you were guaranteed not to hear a sound

Her presence demanded all the kid’s attention
She would captivate the room like a special kind of hypnosis, creating a trance like intervention

Her math was always math-ing, she was something like a whiz

When she was around problems would go down, and we would be lined up, all of us kids

You could say she was an extrovert; everyone knew or heard of her as soon as they came through the door

2nd to me, her and Grandma were really tight, I mean they were really close, Susie was there day and night, together they would do the most.

“Iron sharpens Iron” they say, well Grandma sharpened Susie every day

Smart as a whip, strong as a bull, Susie stayed in shape when Grandma was in the room

She was so popular, not just with us kids, the adults around would speak of Susie’s biz,

And Susie she had her favorites as well, if she really liked you, everyone could tell

Which brings me to the last time that Susie was around
All us grandkids were outside the Red House, horsing and playing around

Grandma had warned us to stay away from the Bee’s nest

I couldn’t have been but 3 feet tall if that, there was no way I was involved in that mess

Well boys will be boys you can guarantee that, and next thing you know everyone heard hollering and hooting coming from the back

As little as I was I still knew that this meant trouble, there was so many of us when one was impacted we all got in trouble

Grandma with Suzie in hand, lined us all up there was no way I was going down for this, enough was enough.

With every ouch and ooh I moved one person back, by the time I got to her they would both  be tired, that’s a fact?

Besides, I was Grandma’s baby, there’s no if and’s or maybes, she would take it easy on me

Well wouldn’t you know I was the last kid standing, nerves intact, quenching my buttocks I moved towards the door,

Grandma grabbed me with her left hand and held on to me giving me more, more of Susie that is,

I screamed out in pain, Momma I called, what kind of sick game…

Through the door I could see my mom and everyone else smiling ear to ear
There was something not fair about this whooping I feared

Why did everyone else get to walk through the door, while I got held back, my portion of whoopin was way more

That day I learned what it meant to be Grandma’s baby,

That meant I got extra of everything, her time, her love, and her friend Susie

A hard lesson I learned there is no going around,

Whether it’ s God or my Grandma a chastening is never lost on those that have been found….

Revelation 3:19 (KJV)
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent.”