My Nan

My Nana died last night. She was awesome.

These are the things I thought about today.

We had a great Christmas this year. For the first time in 3 years we went back to where I grew up for Christmas. We had a wonderful time with the family and as always when there is a family get together, Nan, or BigNan as she is know to the littlies, was there. She loved it. She was legally blind so she couldn't really see anyone or anything very well, but she loved to just be amongst the noise and chaos. The 6 kids all playing together all day with barely a disagreement, something that she commented on often. They loved her too as we all did.

I remember when we were little all of the family gatherings were at Nana and Pa's house which was about 5 minutes drive from our house. I know for a fact that she was always there, as she is in all of the photos from the birthdays and gatherings, special occasions and unimportant occasions. Many of the photos of me as a small child were taken at her house.

I remember that we used to go there for sleepovers. We used to turn on the overhead sprinklers in her shadehouse and run around in there when it was hot. We used to eat icecream with her, dessert always had icecream because Nan loved icecream. I remember we used to go and visit her at work. She worked in a hardware store and in the winter wore this brown parka. I remember once I ran up to a random guy and hugged him because he was wearing the same brown parka that Nan used to wear. I remember that one time my mum and her sister were doing the dishes after a meal at Nan's and they washed all of the paper plates and hung them up on the washing line to tease her because she liked to wash and reuse the plastic ones. I remember the day I got my license and I told my mum and dad that I would drive myself to uni and instead I drove to Nan's and spent the day with her.

I remember the laughter.

I know that she loved me, she had this way about her that you just knew that she loved you, you could tell by the look she would give you, the way you always knew she was proud of you, no matter what. With all the hardships of her life, and there were many, she was a strong, independent, loving, caring woman who was also my Nana.

I remember the laughter.

I love you. I will miss you. Thank you.


(Written 17/03)