Grandma Jo

From my doctors office window I can see many Tacoma landmarks. The Port of Tacoma, St. Nicholas Church, Puget Sound Bank Building (I know, I know its the Heritage Bank building now) the Rust Building and several new condo buildings. Each time I am in this area of Tacoma I think about my grandmother Josephine. She grew up in a house at 1516 South I Street which is in the very same neighborhood where my doctor's office is. Yes, I have the address memorized. I am enamoured by how my grandmother lived as she did not have a mother, as her mother died in childbirth. She was raised by my great grandfather until he remarried. From what she told me, it was very lonely growing up without her "real" mother. Still, I am enamoured by her life - where did she shop? where did her friends live? where was her doctor's office? It was a different life than we know it - no Fred Meyer grocery store, not many cars on the road and most everyone attended church. The house no longer stands as it is now a parking lot of the St Joseph Medical Center. I think and wonder and have so many questions of what my grandmother's life was like when she was a young child.