2. Granddaughter.- Now, this was one of the coolest roles in my life! Being a granddaughter is being doubly loved, just by being born! You are loved because you are the daughter of a child and because you are you. There is no grade of acceptance compared to this greatest love!

And, I was lucky, I had three grans: my great grandmother, two grandmothers: my father's mother and my mother's mother.

My great grandmother was my father's gran. She was very old, very wrinkled and very thin, but she was very serious, very mysterious and an imponent authority. She is the image that comes to my mind when I think of mathriarchy. The sole support of her family after her husband was killed in the Revolution. She saw that my grandmother and her brothers received some education, a work and a means of earning their bread. She saw that my grandmother married my grandfather in a tough way, the only way to be certain it was for real. She was never weak, nor emotionally, nor physically. She taught me through her example that you are never too old for anything, you are always strong and able. She taught me the importance of earrings when she had hers welded when she saw she was terribly ill. She was not very demonstrative of affection, so when she tried it was awkward.

My father's mother was my personal favourite. I was her only granddaughter, her only female close relative. She had many nieces, but I was her direct descendant. I was like her, dark-haired, brown-eyed, same face shape, same eye shape. She loved me dearly. She always bought flowers for me in my birthday. She told me stories from the Revolution and from her youth and all about her life. Always the same, always fascinating. She was always busy --ladies of past time were always busy-- mending socks with a wooden egg, or praying, or sewing things on her sewing machine, which is now in my bedroom, or cooking, or washing dishes, or washing clothes, or folding clothes, sometimes she read the newspaper and on the evening she would watch a couple of sopa operas on TV. She was a simple woman and she was happy just because when I was born I was born a woman, someone who would understand her, someone whom to share her stories, someone to pass on her secrets. And when my daugher was born, she loved her trice.

My mother's mother had many grandchildren, so I was just another one. She had granddaughters and grandsons, I didn't represent a huge difference for her, but still she loved me as she loved all of us. And I had my moment of glory, just as I was born. She even moved to the house next door with my grandpa to be close to my mother and me. She knitted a blue blouse just for me. And I loved staying at her home to listen to her stories about the Revolution from a different perspective than my other gran. I loved listening to her young years, to all her life. She was a very tender and loving woman, also a very happy one, she was always in a good mood and she never let anyone ruin it. She would just erase bad moods around her. It was like not allowed to be in a bad mood when she was there. She was alwyas so jolly it was unavoidable to be the same. She was wise and had a very simple philosophy: "If you can change things why worry? If you can't change them, why worry?" and it worked fine. Quite Buddhist in a way.

So, my grandmas were cool. I learned I was worthy, I have a strong and creative inheritance I can't deny :)