A Story of Poor Grammer

I don’t know about you but often when driving, I find my mind wandering to places far, and often strange. The other day as the scenery whipped past my car, I found myself back at one of the last conversations I had with my Cuban grandmother before she passed away from cancer. For some reason, this memory of her sticks out in my mind. I’ll do my best to explain it in some semblance of coherent English. I went to visit my grandma in her apartment where she had lived for as long as I could remember. I remember things had started to take a turn for the worse regarding her health. While in the following months her state would degrade sharply, this memory thankfully takes place when she was still just as full of life as ever. I had wanted to visit her before leaving the state for an extended period. I honestly don’t remember much about the visit apart from the period right before leaving. When retelling a story to her I had made the unfortunate mistake of using improper grammar. I had said something like “then me and my friend…” Well, as soon as I had said those words she spoke up, interrupting whatever it was I was trying to say. She said, “no, it’s my friend and I; you always walk behind the donkey.” Of course, she probably did a better job explaining her point better than I will. While I do remember being slightly perplexed by her choice of analogy her point was simple enough. A person shouldn’t walk in front of “a donkey” they should walk behind. Her way of telling me to use proper grammar and say, “my friend and me.” Again, I’m not exactly sure why this memory sticks so well in my mind. Perhaps my pride was slightly hurt by my little Cuban grandmother, who often reverted to speaking Spanish, telling me that my English sucked. Anyway, it turned out just fine for me. She gave me a grammatical correction with a great mental picture, and I have a little memento to remember her by. Thank you, grandma!