Amatchi Idiart

I wanted to write some of Damian's paternal grandmother's stories down, in case I started to forget them. . .I recorded her telling them when Emma was a baby, and I listened to them for two weeks on a trip to France with her. . .she shared some again, when we stayed up late, talking. She is our "Amatchi" which means Grandmother in Basque.

Amatchi's maternal grandparents had a donkey and cart to go places, but her parents never did. She had to walk everywhere. . . and carry all the things bought in town, home. . .about 5 kilometers to town. I've been to her childhood home and church/school. They are about 2-3 miles apart. . .and she had to walk that distance too! No wonder she was so thin!

When she was 12 she moved to a big city (Bordeaux, if I remember right) to be a servant to a family with 4 children, the oldest the same age as herself! She would wake very early and stoke the fires in each room, as well as warm soup for the father's breakfast, and make him coffee. She still doesn't understand why he wouldn't do that for himself! She cleaned, cooked and took care of the children for 4 years. She always sent her wages home to her family.

She moved back home when she was 16. At this time, her future husband, Arnaud, was a "domestic" or male servant in another big city. They didn't really meet until she was about 18 and he had come home. She knew his younger brother, Arnaud (yes, they had the same name??!!) and his older sister, Andanyo. She loved Andanyo very much and was very sad when she passed away a few weeks ago. Andanyo was the one who taught Amatchi to sew. Amatchi would carry her machine to a client's house (must have been heavy, an all metal machine!) and make a pattern and sew them things, while sitting in their home. She could make 2 men's dress shirts in one day, a woman's dress took a day and a half. I believe they would feed her lunch. I need to ask her how much they paid for this service! When Damian and I were in France, we met both of those living siblings, Arnaud and Andanyo and it was a special experience. Arnaud looks just like his brother, Arnaud. And we loved his wife, Fifine's, cooking and Andanyo's son's homemade pate. OK, enough about food, back to the tales!

Amatchi and her friends would bring mirrors to Mass, so they could check out the boys in the balcony (girls & boys sat separately, then). They'd always hide them when the Priest came in the room, so they wouldn't get in trouble. At night, sometimes annoying boys would come to the window to visit and Amatchi's little sister, Mado, would toss the contents of their chamber pot on the boys! Amatchi swears she never did that! Her family didn't have electricity or plumbing. . .in fact, they cooked over the fire in the fireplace! She told how a group of her guy and gal friends would all walk to a further town for Vespers. They'd take shortcuts through the fields and get there pretty quickly (just a few miles) but they'd always take the LONG way home, so they could visit and have fun as a group. Of course, they'd get in trouble, but were never kept from attending Vespers! That story made me imagine her as a teenager the most, little devious devil!!

It was so much fun to visit with her, she's really an interesting lady and a barrel of laughs.