Missing my old lady...

I was very fortunate that I knew, let alone had a relationship with my great grandmother. For those you who aren't sure how that works, she was my mother's grandmother. Three whole generations above me. She was 84 when I was born and lived until she was 98. Amazing! Absolutely amazing. She didn't really start acting like old people do (like where they forget things that you had just told them) until the last month of her life.

Some of the most important lessons of my life, I learned from her. She was such an amazing woman. Back in her day, it was unheard of for women to work. But, after the death of two of her sons (one from WWII and the other from childhood illness) and the death of her husband (depression from the death of their sons) she was bound and determined that she was not going to rely on anyone to take care of her family. So, she tucked away her pride and went to work for the phone company and support her youngest son and my grandmother. Never asking anyone for any type of assistance once so ever.

When I was a child, she would tell me all kinds of interesting and hilarious stories of what it was like when she grew up. She told me about the first time that she and her mother heard an airplane. They were out working in the garden when they heard this loud rumbling coming from the sky. At first, they thought it was Judgment Day, and shortly thereafter saw the plane fly overhead. I remember rolling around on the floor laughing when I heard that. I couldn't imagine someone having never seen an airplane. It wasn't possible in my little head.

She also told me about the time when they had learned that the Titanic had sunk. Everyone was in disbelief. It was the ship that could not sink, but some how, it did. The news had finally reached there small town in Alabama two days after it had happened.

When I was very little and I would spend the night at her house, I would have a had time getting to sleep. Being the crafty woman that she was, she would tell me to lay down very still and listen. If I would be patient enough, I could hear the train go by. I would eventually fall to sleep while straining my ears for the whistle. There was no train, the tracks were so far away that there was never any chance of my hearing it from her guest bedroom. Clever indeed.

What had inspired this blog was this. She had a lemon cookie jar that look exactly like these. Just looking at these little vintage pieces made me miss my own vintage person. She was truly a special person and I am glad to have known her and miss her terribly. Even as I write this blog, I look down at my fingers and see her wedding set. Remembering all the love that she and her husband shared for one another. How she had remained unmarried for so long after losing him. He was her one true love, and I get to wear that symbol and remember them always.