Thankful for Great Grandparents

Over the past three weeks my girls have been fortunate enough to have their nana, my husband's grandmother, down visiting and helping. This is the fourth time she's come down for a month or so since our oldest daughter was born.

Each time she's here with us for a month or so, I am so thankful. Not just because an extra pair of hands is a HUGE help, but because my daughters have had the opportunity to spend time and get to know their great grandmother so well. I know they have created lasting memories with her, especially my oldest daughter.  My younger daughter will hopefully have lasting memories too as she gets old enough to maintain more memories.

Grandparents are great at spoiling our children but there is so much more our children get from having a chance to know and spend time with their grandparents. As fortunate as some of us hopefully are to know our grandparents, some of us are even more fortunate to have the opportunity to know our great grandparents. I was very fortunate to have 20 years with my dad's grandmother, my Great Grandma C. To this day I still remember spending summer afternoons at her house helping her out with her yard work and cleaning, and then she would of course give us money to walk to the town ice cream shop to treat ourselves. I can still picture her silver hair and weathered hands and feel the softness of her cheeks from all the times we'd kiss her goodbye. Whenever Touched by an Angel comes or whenever a coworker would refer to my oldest daughter as MacGyver (a story in itself) I think of as I always remember these playing on her TV. I remember even at a  young age admiring her internal strength as she was not dealt the easiest cards in life. She lived through the death of all three of her children, two husbands, and one grandchild, but I remember her as positive and hopeful, always interested in hearing about our latest accomplishments and softball wins. She looked forward to seeing us and now even though there may have been a few days I didn't feel like going over there to help out or stopping by because I was a teen that thought I had more important things to do, I am so glad now that I spent so much time with her and have these lasting memories now.

My husband's grandmother reminds me a lot of my own great grandmother, and even though I felt I had a good relationship with my great grandmother, I feel that my girls have an even closer one with theirs even though we're five hours apart. As much as I think she's a great role model and inspiration to my girls, she is probably more so one to me than them at the moment. She raised three kids on her own in a time when single motherhood was pretty much unheard of. She was farther away from family than the 18 hours I am. At times she held down two jobs and provided for them on her own. She is almost 80 years old but an active woman set on her independence. I've always had an admiration for independent women and when I think of the women I admire and look up to in this age of the independent, determined woman of motherhood, she is and will always be one of the faces I see.

I think as women, and more so as mothers, as much as we want to be our own woman and each generation's journey is different, it is important to find the things we admire in the generations ahead of us. I think even recognizing the women and mothers we look up to is an important part of our own motherhood journeys.

For now I want to say I am so thankful for not only her role in my husband's life or even mine but that my children will have all these wonderful memories of this wonderful woman.

 

Averi and Kenzi with their Nana

 

 

Averi's name Averiella Lorenza is after her Nana whose first name is Lorenza even though she goes by Lorrie.