I was fifteen when my great-grandma passed away. I remember feeling sad, but not a crushing sense of despair. She was 82, living in a nursing home, and dealing with dementia. I felt more sad watching my grandma deal with losing her mother than the actual sense of losing my great-grandma.
I remember a few things about Nanny. I remember how her house used to smell – like spices. I remember the times when my mom and I would bring her a simple chocolate shake and hamburger from Steak N Shake and spend time with her when she was living alone after my Pop-Pop died. I remember the time Nanny called my brother and me “nuttier than fruitcakes” during one of our bickering moments. I remember visiting her at the nursing home, a football game always on the TV and her spitfire nature.
Bits and pieces – that’s all I remember.
A few months ago, my great-aunt gave me something that will keep my great-grandma alive in my memory forever. While we were never close, she was still my great-grandma, mother to the greatest woman I know, my own grandma, and she holds a special place in my heart.
This is Nanny’s Bible.
There are scribbles in every margin of this Bible with her words.
There are circled verses and underlined passages and exclamations to draw my attention.
There are notes, tucked between the tissue-thin paper. Notes that further delve into the Bible and give me insight into her world.
It’s an amazing gift. I hold an incredibly important part of my Nanny in my hands. I couldn’t have asked for a gift that means more to me than this.
It makes me miss her. This woman that I barely knew and didn’t try to get to know. I miss her.
It makes me realize how important relationships are – it’s so easy to get caught up in daily life, to let past offenses and hurt feelings drive a wedge between the people you care about – but relationships are important. Family is important. My grandma and my grandpa (affectionately called Pops) are not going to be around forever (though I swear my Pops will live until he’s 105!) and it’s important to spend as much time as I can with them now. Drink in their wisdom and their knowledge and their stories and their love now. Not when it’s too late. Not when I’ll only have my memories.
This Bible is a precious, precious gift and I am so glad I was the one who stepped up and asked to have it. I want to treat it right, use it well, and learn more about my Nanny through her notes and scribbles.
Have you ever been given a personal gift from a loved one that has passed away?
That is absolutely beautiful. What an amazing treasure. 🙂
Wow – what an awesome gift!
My grandma gave me the gold cross she wore on her wedding day. (I have no idea why she wore this on her wedding day…she’s not religious by any stretch of the imagination. But I’m a Christ-follower, so perhaps it was some kind of foreshadowing for future generations. :0) )
Ah. I’m so happy you have something so special to remember your great grandmother.
That’s so great that you have an family heirloom! My mom has a bunch of old antiques from my great-grandmother but they are still at my parent’s house in Oregon so I don’t have anything. I remember how much I loved looking at them when I was growing up and imaging how they were used.
That is such a special thing to have. I have a few pairs of earrings that were my Nana’s that I wear every once in a while, and a heart pillow that I picked out when shopping with my PopPop when I was very little. They both passed away before I was even in middle school – I feel like I’m more upset now that they’re gone than when I was younger.
This is so, so cool. What an incredible gift.
That is an amazing gift you were given. I would feel so close to my great-grandmother if I were you!
You were young, you can’t blame yourself for not caring then. I know I didn’t care back then. At least you were able to get to know her a little bit. I don’t even remember my great-grandmother on my mom’s side.
What an absolutely wonderful gift. It’s always these mementos from our loved ones’ past that really keeps them alive for us. I inherited my grandmother’s favorite pearl/diamond ring when she passed away, and I have such vivid memories of her wearing it, and me as a child spending time with her, I always adored that piece of jewelry more than any other I’ve come across. I lost touch with her as I got older, but that’s definitely one thing that will make me think of her for as long as I live!
Wow, what a special, amazing gift. It’s one thing to see her thoughts, it’s another to see her handwriting. My grandma let me pick out some books before she downsized and they are extra special to me since my grandpa left his reflections in them.