Mini-Nana

There are few women in the world that are loved as much as this precious lady! This is John's Nana... Effectionately known as Mini-Nana to her 60+ great grand children. Mini Nana is 98 years old and currently living with her daughter (my MIL)in Mesa. She moved there from NY when she was 96! This woman is amazing.

She is always so happy to see our children! Which just makes me love her even more. She delights in watching them run around. and always wants to hold the baby. Her short term memory is going a bit, so she is constantly asking the names of each of the children and how the baby is doing. But her heart is the same and that won't ever change.

I know I said this woman was amazing, but let me tell you a little bit to help you understand what I mean. Nanna is my mentor. If I had known her while I was growing up I am sure that I would have thought I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. In some ways I think I am, but I pale in comparison in so many others.

Nana was adopted by her parents when she was a little girl (around 4 or 5 yrs old). The thing is, that back then they didn't talk about those things so she never found out until she was quite a bit older. Some rotten uncle told her just to be mean!

Nana didn't want to get married but she had promised her mother before she died that she would...so she did. Then she had 6 children with her husband, Jack! Go Nana! To top that off, she took in foster children. I asked her once how many children she thought she had taken in and she tried to count but couldn't. Nana adopted one of her foster boys.

One time I made the mistake of refering to him as the "adopted son" in a casual conversation and boy did she set me strait. She told me in her oh-so-sweet-Nana way that she didn't like for him to be refered to as the "adopted child" because too many people take that as a negative thing (again Nana does come from a completly different era). She told me that when you adopt a child it's like having a baby only with more paper work. That child is yours. She said she couldn't explain it really, and I believed her.

I don't really know to much about her child rearing days. I know that they didn't have too much money (no one with 6 kids ever does). She told me that she used to sew and type at night to bring in extra $$$ to make ends meet. One of Mary's (my MIL) favorite Christmas memories was of waking up to a beautiful christmas tree...Many years later it was discovered that that beautiful chrismas tree was actually a bush from the alley that Jack had cut down and decorated in hopes of giving the children a nice christmas because there was no money for presents.

Nana was a very attentive grandmother while John was growing up. He has told many stories of being drilled on multiplication facts after school while they waited for his Mom to get off work.
When John and I were dating, I ended up staying with her for a few weeks while I figured some things out. She never asked for any thing and refused to accept a dime for rent. She let me play on her piano. I must have just about driven her nuts with the same tune over and over again. Every morning we'd watch The Price is Right together.

Later, after John and I were married Nana moved to KY a few minutes from where John and I were living. Being young and pregnant and not working we spen quite a bit of time in that house on the Lake. We sat and had tea and cookies together while talking about any thing we felt like talking about. I don't even remember if she had a TV at that point I'm sure she did...and I'm sure there was lots more Price is Right and wheel of Fotune. She had a little dog named Amanda and I loved her too. She was just as sweet as Nana.

Well, John's parents moved to Hawaii and Nana moved to NY. John and I ended up moving back to Indiana and we lost contact for several years. Now it seems we've come full circle and we're back where we're supposed to be. Living 10 minutes from Nana all over again and the best part is that she is a part of our kids lives.

The thing about Nana is that she is human. Human bodies give out when they want to and you never know when that's gonna happen. She is 98 now and I am not sure how much time she has with us on this earth. What matters to me is that my children know who this Lady is now. She is ther smiling happy Mini-Nana. Giver of hugs and patter of cheeks. It's hard to believe that I could love this woman any more than I already do, but seeing the joy she finds in my children with each visit only indears her more to me.