Monday, February 3, 2014

The Span of 83 Years

Last month my sweet grandmother, affectionately called "Gampi" by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, passed away. At 83 years old, she had lived quite a life. 5 children, 8 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren. She moved 10+ times as a Naval Captain's wife (his true "commander"!), hosted countless parties, holidays, and dinners, was Cotton Queen (she hailed from Memphis, so of course!), and taught her legacy countless life lessons.




She taught us how to ice skate

She taught us how to set a proper table

How to make the best martini ever

She taught us how to accessorize...we loved playing dress up

Speak softly but carry a big stick

How to polish silver in record time

She taught us how to speak English properly...and reminded us over and over

How to drive stick...on her huge truck of a diesel Mercedes no less

She taught us how to lose gracefully...while planning your next attack

All the "yes m'am" and "no sir's" you could imagine

She taught me how to knit. All I know is how to knit a scarf, but it's something!

If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all

She taught us how to enjoy Big Band; I still have my radio set to one of these stations


While our family is extremely heart broken by the loss of such a small, strong, woman, she left us with thousands of great memories:


Crabbing off their boat on the Chesapeake

Going to dinner theaters and musicals

Paddle boating on the water at Sandy Point park

Making sure the "breakfast fairies" left us breakfast whenever we spent the night. I later learned this was so we could feed ourselves so we wouldn't wake her up in the morning - smart lady!

Swimming in their pool and then relaxing afterwards on the porch hammock eating watermelon

Researching our family genealogy and hearing stories and seeing pictures of all our ancestors

Baking cookies - snickerdoodles were our favorites!

Going to Navy football games at the Academy

Christmas mornings and her white frosted Christmas tree

There are so many more that they would take another lifetime to re-live. I hope she is looking down on us now and smiling proudly at those she left behind and I hope to make her proud each and every day until I can see her again.

No comments:

Post a Comment