English Composition 1 My Grandmother My Grandmother goes by the name of babunya, and baba for short, this means grandma in Ukrainian. She lived in Ukraine for most of her life, and she is almost 90 years old now. She’s been through a lot in her years, thus her appearance has changed. For every wrinkle she has there’s a story to match. She has had every color hair: blonde, red, brown, and black. Now her hair is a short gray color. She keeps it short because it stays out of the way, even though she hates it short. She has always had long her until now.

She has also progressively become shorter over the years due to a very bad back; she now stands just under five feet. Since she spends most of her days in the garden her usual outfit consists of jeans and a flannel shirt so she does not ruin her nice clothes. She takes immense pride in her garden, and uses only the foods she grows to make her authentic Ukrainian meals. My grandma makes the best meals. She cooks dinner every Sunday as if it were a holiday. This is something she takes pride in; it’s a time when the whole family gets together to eat a good hearty meal.

Sunday meals usually consist of beef and mashed potatoes with the best mushroom gravy, homegrown green beans, homemade sauerkraut with bacon bits, fresh salad, and homemade cheesecake for dessert. This is her favorite time of the week because she can cook and catch up with her family. My grandma grew up in a time when there was very little food to eat so she cherishes the weekly Sunday meals. When she was growing up in Ukraine, the communist government started a famine. To her food is not something to waste, and should sort of be celebrated.

Before every meal my grandma prays to thank God for everything He has given her and her family. She thanks Him for where she is because she has been through the best and worst times anyone could go through. My grandma gets very lonely now that my grandpa is in Germany. We still go visit her once a week for these special meals, and we visit her between every Sunday meal too. Because my grandma is so lonely she has no one to talk to during the day. She usually watches the news and educates herself on what is happening in the world around her. When we go to visit her the conversations usually got the same way everytime.

My grandma usually starts off by saying something along the lines of “how’s school going for you? How are your grades? How is work going? Do you like your teachers? ” This part of the conversation doesn’t last long If there is one thing my grandma is good at, it’s talking. She loves telling stories and talking about what’s going on in the world today. Babunya is a very sociable person and can hold a conversation with anyone. My baba was born in a time when the only way you could have food on your plate for dinner was if you hunted it yourself.

She would explain to me that “living in a communist country was one of the worst things I have ever seen or been through. Not only was my country communist, we were going through a famine. There was no way to get food because the government starved us. If I wanted to eat that day I would have to kill a bird or whatever else was around that day. ” My grandma is a very strong woman. She grew up with 3 brothers and 1 sister, who were all older. She always wanted to be like her siblings. Because her siblings were all older, my grandmother was a very fast learner.

They taught her what they were during in school so by the time she got to that grade level she already knew the information. My grandma was also a very smart woman. She loved learning knew things and going to school. By the time she got to 8th grade she had to stop going to school due to World War II. World War II is what brought her here. She was first sent to Germany to work as a laborer, and she eventually got a chance to come to the United States to start a life of her own. She made her way over to America on a boat, and that is when she met my grandpa. We call my grandpa Deduce, or Dedo for short.