My grandma, Sandra Dawidowski Luker, was certainly a “character.” To distinguish her from our grandma on my mom’s side, we called her “Goofy Gram” or “GG” because of her love for Disney and her silly nature. Even when sick, she would constantly joke, always trying to make us laugh.

She’s been gone for about a year now, and while I still miss her, I think I’ve come to terms with it. Cleaning out her house helped. I got the chance to look through all of her items before they were gone. One of the things that we found was a typewriter, and since no one else claimed it, I took it home with the other trinkets I found.

The typewriter itself is in a light brown case, with a zipper coming up on each side. There’s also a small button to keep it in place as well. When unzipping the case, you will find the typewriter and many other papers in a folder behind it, as well as a scent that I could only describe as the scent of an old book. There’s a receipt, a certificate of warranty, a certificate of guarantee, and typing lessons.

The receipt has many details of the transaction, such as her name, Sandra Dawidowski, and the date it was bought, November 22, 1962. It says it was recommended to her by a teacher and she received it as a gift. GG was 16 and was using it at school.

When trying it out, I found that it was much harder to type than I thought it would be. If you don’t press down hard enough, the letter will either be faint or not show up at all, and some of the keys don’t work. I’m surprised it works as well as it does, considering its age.

I wish I had gone through and found this sooner, maybe then I could’ve asked her about it. It’s just one of those things that expanded on what she never told me about herself. Now that she’s gone, this is one of the many things she’s left behind for me, and I will treasure it.