The Jewish Lovebirds

While I was back home in New York for Thanksgiving, I got myself a handy little Flipcam. I tested the camera out by interviewing my 84 year-old grandmother, Nan, and her 83 year-old boyfriend, Lionel, about their Jewish heritage and how they met. Below are the best segments of our conversation. You will probably notice how much they bring out the worst in each other. In fact, it’s fair to say they down right can’t stand each other. Lionel is, what my grandmother calls, a “Jewish American Prince” and a “nudge”. Lionel has always been the jokester and the teaser and my grandmother, being the prim and proper lady that she is, has become less and less tolerable of his behavior over the years. Lionel is the sort of person while dining with my grandmother in a public restaurant, yell, “Help! Help! This little old lady is trying to grope me!” In fact, Lionel is often kicked out of public places much to my grandmother’s embarrassment. Unfortunately, Lionel’s behavior has become slightly more erratic since being diagnosed in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. Also, I’d like to note, my grandmother is particularly cantankerous in this video because she was having extreme back pain and couldn’t walk well.

I can’t wait to get old!!!

As the Jewish Lovebirds explain, they met around thirteen years ago when my grandmother sued Lionel after she got her heel stuck in a tile of a building he owned and fell and broke her wrist. Nobody really liked Lionel, including my grandmother, but he became a family fixture soon enough and I can’t imagine him not being around. He still is a pain in the ass, but thinking about the nightmarish journey he and my grandmother are about to embark on breaks my heart.