1. Grandma Lu’s Pearls By Student of HS 31000

2. R___ L___ R L was born in the United States in 1910, her parents had immigrated from Ireland and were very poor. They never owned a home or a car, but managed to maintain a secure and loving lifestyle where working outdoors with your family was considered the best life had to offer.

3. Grandma Lu’s first husband was from Ireland. He was a barber during the week, and a musician on the weekends. Unfortunately he died young, before I was born. Grandma Lu was sad for a very long time. She often walked the beach to cry and to yell at the winds and tide.

4. Grandpa Phil was a fisherman. He was Native and his family loved to work together on their 45 foot fishing boat. One day he saw a woman walking on the beach yelling. He wondered what she was yelling at and he admired her long red hair. His family was certain she was crazy and told him so.

5. Sometime later Phil & Lu were married. The families blended and had the most awesome beach pic-nics. Lu Phil All of us

6. By the time the next generation came along, Phil and Lu had started an oyster farm near the beach where they had met. The stand where they sold their oysters was called Crazy Lu’s. Sometimes I would stay with my Grandpa Phil & Grandma Lu. I loved being at the beach and spending time with them. Both had continued to work with their families which meant Phil was out fishing much of the time. Gathering oysters was a fun job and I looked forward to it.

7. Sometimes I would see Grandma shout into the oysters. She would shout into the oysters things like “why can’t he put things away”, “I wish he would get back” “He’s late! I hope he is alright!” “God, why do I love a fisherman?”.....

8. When I asked Grandma why she shouted into the oysters, she said “to make pearls of wisdom, honey—your Grandpa showed me how.” She described broken glass on the beach being smoothed into something pretty and angry words being smoothed into pearls. The Ocean smoothes our rough spots

9. Later when Grandpa shucked the oysters, he would shout too. He would shout to Grandma “did you get your wish?”, “do you still love me”, “I hope you’re still not angry”, or “no pearls and no shopping today”.

10. Grandpa told me later how pearls were really made Grandpa told me that when an oyster gets a grain of sand it churns it around and polishes it, but as a child, I loved their game. I don’t remember them any other way than laughing and playing with each other.