I found out today that in Chechen culture I could be a grandma!!! Crazy, I am only 32. So how did this come about? Today about 30 Chechen women made their way slowly through the heavy rain to the Oasis seeking clothing. About 75% of the women looked like grandmas. So I jokingly said today is grandma day! One of the women looked to be in her 90's. She is the oldest Chechen woman we have ever met and she lived through the years when Stalin deported the whole Chechen population from their homeland to Kazakhstan. Just the mention of this quickly brought tears to her eyes. She has been in Austria for several months but today was her first time to the Oasis. She had been sick all this time. I found out she is only in her 70's, but still is the oldest Chechen refugee that we have met. Usually the older Chechen people want to stay in their homeland because they know they will die soon and it is very important in their culture that they be buried in their village cemetery within 24 hours of their death according to their Muslim traditions. So anyway, I will call this grandma, Peggy. We talked about her family and I discovered that Peggy, at her age, is a great great great grandma to many. Can you believe it?
So here is the math...and you can calculate today what you would be in Chechen culture.
age 15 woman gets married and becomes a mom within one year.
age 30 Woman becomes a grandma (woman's daughter gets married and has child)
age 45 woman becomes a great grandma
age 60 woman becomes a great great grandma
age 75 woman becomes a great great great grandma.
I am so glad that God cares about us at all ages, no matter how well we walk or how many wrinkles we have.
0 comments:
Post a Comment