Four generations...
Grandma Lorraine and her kid sis Blanche... two spring chickens at 80 and 78 years young!
That's my Grandma.. celebrating her 80th birthday with a smile on her face and a spring in her step (figuratively of course...). Her optimism is unmatched and her joy contagious. And above all, she has a love for the Lord that is most sincere...
The kids love her. When GG comes they know that they will have her undivided attention for days straight. She plays games with them for hours on end and literally hangs on their every word. And they love her stories of times passed... completely entertained as they sit mesmerized by her colorful accounts of days when their own Papa was a just little boy.
That's what hit me this visit. Grandma is known for her vivid reminiscing, things that (probably) took place literally a half-century ago, but the theme is still the same. She loved her family... loved being a mom. No one is perfect, this goes without saying, but her best years were the ones she still lives to retell. Days of caring for her own little ones. And of course, the stories are endless, but she tells them like it were yesterday. Speaking of her four little "pride and joys" Steve, Loren, Marlys, and Carol. Her babies are all middle aged adults now, most of them grandparents themselves... but her babies nonetheless. This is my legacy. A grandmother who takes the most pride of her eighty years of life, in being a mom, and raising her family. I have seen it and lived it with my own amazing mother, and now I see it in my dear grandmother. She talks a lot of her grand-children too, reminding me of stories from my own childhood, as well as my brother's and cousin's. Some of them I remember, some of them I don't... But they mean the world to her... because we mean the world to her.
So after spending this week together, I've realized how much I long to carry on this legacy of the great women in my life...(Not that I am the same great story teller, although there may be a bit of her in me I suppose!). To appreciate these years for what they are...the best years of my life...of our life. And that someday my children will know what I've always known from my mother and grandmother...that they are treasured...
3 comments:
My heart overflows (and my eyes too) - because you are right - being a mom (your and Rod's mom), and now being a grammi - is truly the very best in life.
That was so sweet!
What a wonderful legacy you have and I know you will leave for your children. It is an amazing gift you have been given to know that you and your children are treasured.
Post a Comment