my grandma changed her name on me

Disclaimer: I wrote this post as a tangent to another post.

The woman I've grown up calling "Grandma" is my adoptive grandmother.  But she's been as real to me as any blood relative, and definitely closer than either of my two biological grandmothers.  Grandma is my step-father's mother.  An amazing woman whom I speak about here.

I met her when I was 11 (maybe 12?).  My parents (mum and step-dad) hadn't been together all that long, and she was introduced to me as "Mrs. Atwell".   Despite the fact that she had numerous grandchildren already, we became very close.  I lived with her when I was 17, and for the past four years her place was where I stayed when I went home to visit.

I called her "Mrs. Atwell" for five years.  The, when I was living with her, all that changed.  We had had a huge fight.  My step-father and I had done something that she didn't like, she took it out on me, and I stood up for myself.  Until this past year, I believe I was the only grandchild to have ever had a real, all out fight with Grandma.  Apparently later that day she said to my mother "You'll never have to worry about Eliza.  She can take care of herself."

It was two days later.  I was sitting in her kitchen, and she was cooking something.  We hadn't been talking much; the air was still pretty thick with us.  Then, out of nowhere, she turned around and said "I think it's high time you call me Grandma".  And then she went back to her cooking.

It took me a long time to get used to calling her Grandma, despite the fact that she had long been my grandma.  But that's probably my favourite memory of her and me.  Sitting in her kitchen, just days after a massive argument, and her telling me to start calling her Grandma.