Nan's Alphabet

 I have a friend that lives two blocks from her sister, 3 blocks from her mother, 4 blocks from her best friend and 6 blocks from their church. They talk on the phone at least once a day, they know what to pick up at the grocery store without asking each other. They stick a Hershey bar on the drivers side seat of the car because you know their every move. So many families now are disconnected. My mother in law did not speak to her sister for 25 years until 1 year before she died. They lived 5 miles apart, it was over an unkind word spoken in haste and anger. Why do we hold a grudge against the people we love? Do we want to hurt the people we love the most? When Nan was in her 60's she lived 6 months in Florida and 6 months in New York. She worked for a wealthy couple that traveled and she traveled with them as their nurse. One of my sisters wanted Nan to come home for the birthday of her daughter. Nan was committed to filling shifts of alternate nurses for the couple, at the last m...

 Many children are fearful of their parents because they discipline them. Sometimes they deserve it and sometimes the parents are wrong. They choose the wrong child to punish because none of the children will tell tales about the other sibling. I was 8, my sister was 7 and my other sister was 5. The boys slept downstairs, we slept in the third floor attic, all three of us in one double bed. There were 16 steps straight down to the the second floor. There was a door at the bottom of the steps that locked us in the attic from the outside. IT was a hook and eye device, if we slipped a comic book between the door and the frame we could unhook it. There was no bathroom in the attic. Lucky for us none of us wet the bed. We used to carry on constantly when our mother put us to bed at 7pm. We would jump on the bed, hold hands and dance around the room making very loud noises. At least once a night my father would come up the steps and beat us with a belt, a hairbrush or strap. He knew neve...

 Animals were always apart of our family. Starting in 1951 we always had Beagles in our house. Whether the dog was a male or female their name was always LuLu. Front time to time, I mentioned there were other breeds in the home but Beagles were our go to dog. One more thing for Nan to clean up after. One time she was visiting Abigails' home, she decided to take their female dog Stella out for a walk. They lived in a rural part of a southern state surrounded by a heavily wooded area. Stella was 150 pounds of solid Husky. She was calm and playful in the home, shedding hair with every step she took. The leash was on and the storm door was open. As Nan proceeded to push open the screen door Stella saw a squirrel. Nan had the leash in one hand and the door in the other hand. Stella took off running, ignoring the 125 pound lady flying behind her. Nan literally flew out the door with hands and feet in the air like a jet plane. She forgot to let go as Stella took a 25 foot hop toward the s...