The fondest memories of my childhood taste like banana bread and red jello. I can honestly say that Courtney and I were spoiled with love and attention and all the stuffed animals my father could fit on a shelf. By far though, my favorite memories of Nina are when she came to stay with us after Grandaddy died. I remember once when I was thirteen I got out of the shower and, thinking I was home alone, I went downstairs naked to get something from the laundry room. Sure enough, Nina was sitting at the kitchen table, and for ten years she never let me forget it. She’d always say “you’re beautiful, Brittany, and I know because I saw you naked!” I never lived it down.
One evening probably later that same year, while we were sitting in the living room the cat had lain down on the couch behind Nina, and when he saw the tag in the back of her blouse, he stuck his paw down her back and scared her so badly that she made this sound that Courtney and I laughed at for years afterward.
These moments are small glimpses into what it was like to be around her, to spend time with her. There was never a dull moment, never an afternoon without Friendly’s. That’s what I’m going to remember. How much Nina loved us all and wanted us all to be happy and healthy and good. I couldn’t have wished for a better grandmother, and I can only hope to have a heart as big as hers.
Nina died sunday evening. My mother intentionally withheld her memorial service information from me and my younger sister because she didn’t want us to go for various reasons (my sister has an exam that day). She reneged on her offer to buy my plane ticket and told me she didn’t like my attitude and that what I do reflects on her and that if I were to go up to ct for the funeral and be an inconvenience to everyone, that it would make her look bad.
I had come to the conclusion that there was no point in going because the only person there who would have been happy to see me was my grandmother. Since then, though, my cousin texted me and asked if there was anything I wanted her to read at the service in my stead. So I wrote that and sent it to her.
view 1 note