Almost There

This weekend my great-grandmother celebrates her 95th birthday. Go Granny, go!!

She is such a neat woman, and yet, there's still so much I don't know about her.

She is the 13th of 14 children. Her family is from Louisiana and either when she was young or right before she was born her family moved to Texas. She married my great-grandad had six children and then divorced him. Of her six children, 3 girls & 3 boys she's lost one, Uncle William, to a car accident. Her oldest child is my grandmother, Cloma. Her youngest child, Uncle Dwayne, was born 10 years after my grandmother. She raised her children with a firm hand, but with much love. They are all caring and giving people, to whom family is very important. Which is very obvious to me, seeing them take care of her now!

In the last few years she was found to have a mass around her esophagus. She has had several procedures as well as some chemo and it's gone, she's a cancer survivor!

For years she lived in a small town with little or no relatives nearby. The same town where my mother and uncle were born. She'd lived in the same town for so many years, longer than I know.

She's since moved closer to her family, but she still lives by herself. My uncle Keith, her grandson, lives close by and she sees my grandmother every day.

She loves to sing, I believe it's where all of us got that. She still sings old songs to us 'kids' and our kids. Songs about John Brown's body and playmates, and many other old songs that amaze people when I recogize them and know the words!

She tells stories of when she and my great-grandad were young, good stories about the fun they had, with no money (depression era, you know) and how they managed to get by. She never talks bad about him, or else I've never heard it, and I know he wasn't a nice man. (Well, I guess you could say he was a 'friendly' guy... friendly to other women, if you know what I mean.) But still, never a bad word from her.

My grandmother told me stories of her youth. How, when they had no money for clothes, Granny would make their clothes from the feed sacks. This was back when feed sacks weren't just burlap bags, they came in different patterns, flowers and such. Granny would use the flowery material to make them dresses (remember, 3 girls, and they were close together!) and the white flour sacks she would bleach to make thier panties.

You should see the walls in her home. They are covered with pictures! From her 6 children, she has 19 grandchildren, 22 (almost 23) great-grandchildren, and 32 (almost 33) great-great grandchildren!

So, this weekend many of us will gather together to honor this woman, who, if it weren't for her (and the grace of God!) we wouldn't be here!