George Edwardson tells his cousin, Doreen Simmonds, about watching his grandfather translate the New Testament into Inupiaq, their native language.
Originally aired March 13, 2009, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Transcript
George Edwardson (GE) and Doreen Simmonds (DS)
GE: He’d done all his typing with his two fingers and an old Royal typewriter where the keys come jumping out. And he would sit there and translate and translate. And, at that time, me and my cousin we would like to play with cap guns and one time we distracted him so bad, he jumped up and he hollered. And he was going to spank me and my cousin, but before he could come near us grandma come running around the door from the kitchen, holding those big handled straw-brooms. And that broom must have been about an inch and half in diameter, hickory. And, when grandpa saw that broom he just turned away from us, put his head forward and waited for my grandma to hit him. And she hit him with that broom so hard… it broke. He never said a word.
He reached over, picked up the broken part and gave it to grandma, put on a jacket and walked out. Twenty minutes later he came in with a brand-new broom And he hung his parka up, gave the new broom to grandma and turned his head to get some more. Grandma just laughed and told him to get lost. I mean that’s the kind of love my grandma and grandpa had for each other. Never raised a word against, never said anything against her, but when she hollered he was ready for her broom. That’s how they were. With actions that’s how they taught us, and, you can’t get better teaching than that.