"Let me rub some magic into your hand."

My grandmother was my grandfather's caretaker for about the last twenty years of her life. She never complained about it and met his strange demands with grace and love. I remember one time when I was at their house along with her usual breakfast of the tallest biscuits in the world, two kinds of bacon, sausage patties, ham, and eggs made to order - she made a hamburger patty. I asked her why she did that and she told me Granddaddy woke her up in the middle of the night and told her he really had a taste for hamburger. I said he should be happy with all that other food she cooked and she said simply - "Well, I don't mind, it's no trouble." She meant it, too. So, anyway, she got pancreatic cancer, and the summer I turned 14, I spent a few weeks with them and I knew something was wrong when she didn't have enough strength to make my birthday cake. She talked me through making my very first chocolate chip cake while she lay on the bed in the back bedroom, and she was so proud. She joined Carol and me in the kitchen for a slice. My birthday is in August and in September (1982) she left this world - leaving Granddaddy all alone.

Our family had to put him in the nursing home and he did not want to come to be near any of his children. He wanted to stay in Monroe County, Mississippi, as almost all of its residents do. My Aunt Cabby (Carolyn Ritter) and her children lived in Memphis. While, my Uncle Jim resided in Marietta, Georgia, and my family lived in Charlotte and Richfield, NC respectively. So, naturally, the care and keeping of Granddaddy fell mostly to my aunt and my three cousins. 

My cousin, David, was kind of an amazing kid with electronics. He told me that he had his own TV and radio repair shop when he was only 16. Now he's a big shot at the Memphis Airport. He was always helping our grandparents out on the farm - replacing fuses, repairing stuff, helping in the garden; he even put a swing up for me once.

To help Granddaddy live more comfortably in the home, and before "the clapper" came on the market, David knew how to rig up such a device. David had rigged up this "clapper" type device to the TV so that Granddaddy could turn it on and off by himself by just clapping his hands since his limited mobility wouldn't really allow him to control it any other way than asking for help every time. 

Granddaddy had a mischievous sense of humor. 

One of the nurse's assistants noticed that he had turned his TV on just by clapping his hands. She asked, "Mr. Rubel, how did you do that?" He replied: "Magic, want to try it?" "Come over here and let me rub some magic into your hand." Reluctantly, she approached his bed and let him rub her hand; then she tried it herself. She clapped and the TV went off. It frightened her so much that she just ran from the room. Mr. Stegall, my grandfather's roommate, and Granddaddy got a good belly laugh out of that incident - something deeply needed in nursing homes. 

So that's how my granddaddy got through his last year of life. 'Round about a year after Grandmother died, he became so bereaved that he went on to join her.