love knows no age

nana by kristin~mainemomma">
strolling with big nana, a photo by kristin~mainemomma on Flickr.

in life we are gifted certain people that mold our ideas of life, family and love. for me mine were my pop-pop and my nanny. they were my great grandparents, but being born to young parents, i was afforded many quality years with them as prominent positive figures in my life. they took care of me a lot. i miss them every day. i remember my nanny always in a dress and pretty white hair, she grew the most amazing hedge of tea roses. the smells and colors are the memory i hold of her... and how she used to tell me to go down in the basement and in my best Pennsylvania dutch, tell my pop-pop to "pull up his pants!" (because they were always sagging... :)) that is the only phrase i know to this day in PA dutch.. it stuck. when i eat a fresh tomato i always think of my pop-pop, he quartered them and ate them just so with salt & pepper. i do it exactly the same way. he loved chocolate ice cream and he used to scoop me a bowl and let me swirl it with my spoon til it got all soft and we'd eat it with salty pretzels... i still do that today.. when my nanny passed away, my pop pop used to spend many days taking me to his favorite diner where all the sweet waitresses knew him by name. we'd sit at the counter and order the exact same meal every time, hot roast beef sandwiches and fries smothered in gravy and a slice of pie. you had to order the pie with your lunch to be sure you got the flavor you wanted. the pies there were the bomb and they sold out FAST! my choice was always the same, cherry crumb. we'd sit at those tall spinny seats, with my feet dangling, and he'd tell the ladies i was his date. i felt like the most special little girl in the whole world on those days with him. he had wavy hair and the best gap toothed grin. he wore suspenders every day. when he got cancer and lost some weight, he refused to buy new pants to fit his smaller waist, that 's what suspenders are for! :)) they were good people. really really good. how i wish i could see them today. i want to show them the woman i have become and share my children with them... and i would thank them for all that love and how special it is to me now that i am an adult... i am sure i never told them enough when i was small.
where am i going with this rambling and reminiscing? well i am so lucky that my kids have a great grand, we call her "big nana" and she is plain awesome. she reminds me of my own great grands and how special they were. how love knows no age if you don't let it... this is a story of love at Paper Coterie today...