Going to Grandma's House

Now let me put a disclaimer...I love my yia yia. In her own ways she's was a good woman(may she rest in peace) but we just didn't have that connection that some others may have with their grandparents. It's funny that I make the comparison of uncomfortable or awkward situations as going to grandma's house but it has worked in allowing me to cope with these situations. I remember being in Malawi and thinking about all the situations where my presence was expected(funerals, weddings, other village ceremonies) but I didn't necessarily want to go. I would have to sike my mind up to going to these functions and would tell myself that it was like going to grandma's house. I was expected to go but didn't want to always to go because well...I guess dynamics need to be explained here. As many of you know or don't know i'm half Greek. Now my yia yia(grandma) was a typical Greek woman in my eyes. Went to church, hung out with church friends and other Greeks, cooked, and the likes. But seeing as my grandma was Greek and raised surrounded by other Greeks and i'm bi-racial and raised surrounded by all types of people, are outlooks on the world were very different. She was funny and she could cook, but sometimes there were these awkward silences that I swear I could hear crickets chirping 5 states away. When it was time to go to yia yia's house, I would have to build it up in my mind that it really isn't that bad and that it's the right thing to do because she is my grandma and well it's the least I could do because she did play a roll in me being here. So now whenever I have an awkward situation I tell myself it's like going to grandma's, something you have to do but may not always want to do but will allow the other person some type of satisfaction because you did.