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OH MERCIFUL WORDLE
Oh Mercy Wordle!
Snacking and Remembering
I remember my grandmother using the word MERCY a lot. It was an expression that she must have brought with her from some earlier time. When she was surprised by something, or thought that something was too hot, too cold, too loud, etc. the expression was “Oh Mercy”. It came with a hand gesture that might have been literal pearl clutching if she had been the type to wear pearls.
It was an inoffensive, easy way to register surprise and I can still hear her say it.
I loved my grandmother and I respected what she had lived through and how she and my grandfather had worked their whole lives on their farm. Using “Oh Mercy” was perhaps for the benefit of me and other young children so we didn’t have to hear the decidedly saucier language common when farming. I don’t remember my grandmother ever saying anything harsher than her signature “Oh Mercy!”.
She was always wonderful, as grandmothers usually are. She always had snack cakes to share with her grandchildren, and high stools at a kitchen island that were an unusual treat for us. I have a distinct memory of sitting on those stools eating a chocolate snack cake from a crinkly wrapper.
Unfortunately, near the end of her life she suffered from dementia. That’s a difficult…
