"At Grandma's Knee"

I was named after my paternal grandmother, Maude Ann Walsh. Grandmother lived right next door to us in what was then West Paterson, now Woodland Park, NJ. She often told me stories about Jesus and in the early 1950's, when I was very young, she made a scrapbook for me out of cardboard. Grandma decorated it with pictures of flowers snipped from a Burpee Seed catalog and pictures of cats, dogs, farm animals and dancing children that she found in various magazines of the day. Most importantly, inside the scrapbook was "The Life of Our Lord" written by Charles Dickens for his children. The story was printed with inconsistencies in spelling and punctuation that appeared in the original manuscript, which Dickens had not intended to publish. It appeared, as a series, in a local newspaper, probably the Paterson "Morning Call". I say that because I recall that was the newspaper that was delivered daily to her home.

The poem that follows appears in honor of my grandmother.

Maude Ann Walsh
paternal grandmother of Maude Carolan Pych

AT GRANDMA’S KNEE

In memory of my grandmother, Maude Ann Walsh

For all my grandchildren

When I was a child, sitting at my grandma’s knee

she told me about Jesus, Who gave His life for me.

She made for me a scrapbook all about the Lord,

to show me countless reasons why He should be adored.

I still have that scrapbook. I keep it with my treasures.

Looking through it time to time is among my pleasures.

She told of His birth at Christmas; Easter, it was the Cross;

told of the sins He saved us from, when His life was lost.

She made it clear she loved Him; I learned to love Him, too,

and I grew up to follow Him, all my whole life through.

Now I have grandchildren, who sit upon my knee;

I get to tell them of the things that mean the most to me.

I read them poems and sing to them…Oh! we laugh and play;

I hug and kiss and pray with them in my special way.

Of course I tell of Jesus and why I love Him so,

and oh I hope they’ll love Him, too, as they grow and grow.

Maude Carolan Pych