BUT NANNIE’S FUN

I’m going to chase a rabbit.  My recall of the memorable time with my mother-in-law in Colorado triggered other memories of her.  When Elliott was a teenager, he told us that he thought it was unfair that one of his friends had to go visit her grandmother during the summer.  Of course teenagers had better things to do than spend summer vacation time around old people.  Six Flags is more to their liking.  I said, “Well, I’ve never heard you complain about visiting your grandmother.”   He said, “Yeah, but Nannie’s fun.”  

And so she was.  She was always capable to unpredictable behavior like shoving snow down her son-in-law’s shirt collar.  Once we were eating dinner.  She was at the other end of the table.  She said, “Norman, would you like to have a piece of cheese?”   Instead of passing it to me, she just threw it across the table.  Fortunately, I caught it. That was vintage Nannie.

On another occasion, we were eating together at a restaurant in Kansas City.  Again it was during Elliott’s teen years.  For some reason, she and Elliott started throwing cloth napkins at each other.   The object was to try to hit the target in the face while that person wasn’t looking.   Mother would throw her napkin and then quickly fold her hands in her lap like nothing had ever happened.  There was a woman with three small children at a table across from us.   She was trying to get her children to behave in a public place.   The old woman and the teenager weren’t helping.   I looked over and saw her cover her mouth with horror written all over her face. 

How much we all miss “Nannie.”  She was truly one of a kind.  There was no kind of job she was afraid to tackle.  Shortly, before the end of her life, she told me that she had some rotting boards in the soffit underneath her roof.  We were going to be at her house for a few days and I needed something to do, so I volunteered to fix the boards.  I’m not the world’s greatest handyman, but I figured I could do the job.

When I started tearing out the bad stuff, it needed a lot more work than I had imagined.  It even involved replacing some decking and a few shingles.  It was August in Waco, and the temperature rose to more than a  hundred degrees, but she got on the roof and helped me fix it.  That too, was vintage Nannie.

We all miss her, but we plan to see her again in the next life.  She never believed that people will be able to recognize each other in heaven.   We disagreed with her, and we’re planning to see her in the land where there is no parting.