diff --git a/MySQLdb/cursors.py b/MySQLdb/cursors.py
index 1e0a3f94..a7def7f9 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/cursors.py
+++ b/MySQLdb/cursors.py
@@ -60,11 +60,10 @@ class BaseCursor(object):
          InternalError, ProgrammingError, NotSupportedError
 
     _defer_warnings = False
+    connection = None
 
     def __init__(self, connection):
-        from weakref import ref
-
-        self.connection = ref(connection)
+        self.connection = connection
         self.description = None
         self.description_flags = None
         self.rowcount = -1
@@ -81,7 +80,7 @@ def __init__(self, connection):
     def close(self):
         """Close the cursor. No further queries will be possible."""
         try:
-            if self.connection is None or self.connection() is None:
+            if self.connection is None:
                 return
             while self.nextset():
                 pass
@@ -192,8 +191,6 @@ def setoutputsizes(self, *args):
 
     def _get_db(self):
         con = self.connection
-        if con is not None:
-            con = con()
         if con is None:
             raise ProgrammingError("cursor closed")
         return con