G' bye Granny Nath

Sorry so long with no posts again. My computer caught a virus and had to be sent away to recover. It's back now, so I can function online again. I've been waiting to create a post about my grandmother who passed away last week. We knew she wasn't doing well since she'd been in the hospital for several days, and it didn't look like life would improve much for her from then on. We thought she had maybe three to six months left in this life.

Two days before my mom called to tell me that Granny Nath had passed away, I was struck by the strongest memory I've had of Gran in a very long time. When I poured my morning cup of coffee, the smell transported me right back to Granny Nath and Grampy Nort's kitchen table in the very wee hours of morning. It was still dark outside, and Gran had been up for hours already with her cup of coffee when I joined her at the table. I was five, I was six, I was eight years old. She read to me the children's stories from her Women's Day or Ladies Home Journal magazine while I had toast with cinnamon sugar and she had coffee. It was the first time I heard Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst which is now a favorite of my kids.

I smell my own coffee brewing every morning, but that morning a little over a week ago, it smelled different. It smelled like Granny Nath's coffee, and I was in that kitchen with her in the 1970's. I think she was preparing to leave her one-month-shy of 90 year old body when I was struck by that memory.

So, here are a few photos of my wonderful Granny Nath who spoiled me rotten every chance she got. Who would yell, "Hey Knucklehead!" out the window of her charcoal gray convertible if someone drove to close to her even though she was the one straddling two lanes. Who would take me for the very best cheeseburgers and cherry soda at the local "Tap" and always had a dime for the pinball machine. Who would let me stay up hours past my bedtime to watch The Love Boat and Fantasy Island and Johnny Carson from a cot next to her bed. Who would always tell people exactly what she thought as the thought entered her head even if it was to let me know that one boyfriend or another was not at all very handsome. Who upon meeting J for the first time turned to me and declared, "He has such nice teeth!" Phew, he passed the Granny Nath test.

Granny Nath, a.k.a. Nathalie, as a toddler...

with my dad...

listening to #1 tell it like it is...

and giving #2 some lovin' at his first X-mas...

We'll miss you, Gran!