Let It Be Me

 When you enter a competition, run a race, first to finish a test, bake a cake that turns out perfect. You are so proud of yourself. People look at you with amazement, maybe the did not believe you could accomplish it. You were great and you know it. 

One thing Nan wanted more than anything was grandchildren. The first was a beautiful baby girl with chestnut hair, sparkling blue eyes and never cried. She was held from morning to night byre mother, her cousins, neighbors, Nan, her dad and his parents. No one ever put her down except to change her diaper. We will call her Miss K.

Her favorite day of the week was Sunday as she grew older. That was the day she would go to Nan's house and play with her cousins. She was the Leader of the Pack.  By the time she was 8 she had 12 cousins that she could tell what to do. She organized plays and shows for the adults. Variety shows with singing, dancing and clowning around. She was the emcee but would jump in to perform because she had talent too. They would rummage through Nan's clothes baskets to find the appropriate outfits to crack all of the 20 adults to roars of laughter.

The children would follow her like the Pied Piper to the playground across the street while the adults played pinochle at the dining room table. The games were freeze tag, kick the can, flashlight tag while whizzing around the baby carriages with their favorite baby dolls. Sweaty, hungry they flocked back to the house where Nan would be ready with thick chocolate shakes, beef stew and meatloaf to feed the crew. If you wanted your chocolate shake a different way she would add more Hershey syrup and a dash of love.

Until Miss K reached her teens her family was everything to her, she did not ignore her friends she invited them over on Sunday to meet her Nan. This was a second home to her and sometimes she would sneak away and get a special moment all to herself with Nan. Since she was the oldest she was the queen of the house. She came to learn that the beautiful and wonderful Nan treated all of the grand children with love but she gave the world to Miss K.

When the cousins, aunts, uncles and friends gathered for a special event there were 60 to 75 people laughing, playing ball, a corn toss game, horse shoes with a baseball game in the back field. Who is on First, it was always Nan in the center of the activities.


Go Nan!

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