A Life Worth Celebrating
A very late and somewhat frustrating trip to Walgreens last night, but it was so worth it. My mom and her sisters are busy planning a "surprise" birthday party for my Grandma Sightler's 80th birthday party on the 29th. She probably just assumes we'll take her out to eat and sing. Yet she will be surprised when she arrives at the restaurant and finds all 50 some-odd family members and family friends there to celebrate her life alongside her. We are all anxious to see her reaction.
My Walgreens trip was so that I could make digital photograph copies of old snapshots I had collected of her. I had two of her as a young baby and girl, one of she and Grandpa during their "courting" era, and of course, her elegant wedding portrait. I had borrowed all of the originals in 2002 as I prepared a selection of historical family vignettes in order to grace my hallway with memories.
As I fought with the tempermental scanning machine, Ken offering his expertise and guidance, Gardner on my hip, drooling on my winter coat, I slowed down momentarily to gaze into the eyes of the wonderful lady in these photographs, a woman from which I know I gained a lot of my own traits and temperment tendencies. Her quiet strength radiates from those squares of paper, and I often stare at them in wonder of what it might have been like to know her way back when. Before she was a married woman, before she was a mother, before she was a grandmother. What I know about her is only the tip of the iceberg as to how many other stories and experiences she had before I was even thought about.
I have two books that I treasure, books filled with written memories of she and Grandpa both. I gave one to each of them to fill out a few years ago, and it was at my 25th birthday, I believe, when they returned them to me, full of history, wisdom, and memoirs. I cried the first time I read through them, and still do, whenever I decide to pick them up again and refresh my memory with what's written in those pages.
And so all of this hard work we are doing, collaborating, brainstorming, and running frenziedly to and fro for decorations and such....it is all to celebrate a life. My grandmother, a life that was so instrumental and valuable in my mother's world that I was named after her. A Godly life, a life worth mimicking. I thank God each day for letting me be born into such a wonderful, exemplary family who has been building on His foundations since very early on. Not many people can count themselves lucky in that respect.
My Walgreens trip was so that I could make digital photograph copies of old snapshots I had collected of her. I had two of her as a young baby and girl, one of she and Grandpa during their "courting" era, and of course, her elegant wedding portrait. I had borrowed all of the originals in 2002 as I prepared a selection of historical family vignettes in order to grace my hallway with memories.
As I fought with the tempermental scanning machine, Ken offering his expertise and guidance, Gardner on my hip, drooling on my winter coat, I slowed down momentarily to gaze into the eyes of the wonderful lady in these photographs, a woman from which I know I gained a lot of my own traits and temperment tendencies. Her quiet strength radiates from those squares of paper, and I often stare at them in wonder of what it might have been like to know her way back when. Before she was a married woman, before she was a mother, before she was a grandmother. What I know about her is only the tip of the iceberg as to how many other stories and experiences she had before I was even thought about.
I have two books that I treasure, books filled with written memories of she and Grandpa both. I gave one to each of them to fill out a few years ago, and it was at my 25th birthday, I believe, when they returned them to me, full of history, wisdom, and memoirs. I cried the first time I read through them, and still do, whenever I decide to pick them up again and refresh my memory with what's written in those pages.
And so all of this hard work we are doing, collaborating, brainstorming, and running frenziedly to and fro for decorations and such....it is all to celebrate a life. My grandmother, a life that was so instrumental and valuable in my mother's world that I was named after her. A Godly life, a life worth mimicking. I thank God each day for letting me be born into such a wonderful, exemplary family who has been building on His foundations since very early on. Not many people can count themselves lucky in that respect.
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