Image of a loving Grandmother

After reading and watching the class DVD on Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” I am reminded of my Mama (grandmother), who lives in West Virginia. My Mama is feisty and determined like Phoenix Jackson. They both also have a sense of humor, which must be associated with growing up in the rural South. The big exception, of course, is that my grandmother is White and therefore did not suffer the racial bias that Jackson does in the story (452, 453).

Phoenix talks to the animals, “Out of my way, all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons and wild animals!” (449), and I can almost hear my Mama saying something like that to the animals that eat her flowers and plants. They are both small with Phoenix being described as “very old and small” (449) and my Mama weighs less than 110 pounds. However, they both are fearless with Phoenix being described as “a hundred years old, and scared of nothing” (452) and my Mama shooing away a mountain lion from her back patio.

I believe Phoenix Jackson’s grandson and I are very fortunate to have such special grandmothers in our lives. They both treat their grandsons with love. For example, Phoenix says, “I could tell him from all the others in creation.”(454) These traits are passed on to other generations making the family stronger and leaving essential values.

Alex Schoener