Nan's Alphabet

 One thing Nan loved more than herself was her sisters and being with them made all of her problems go away. She loved her sisters and their children and sometimes their husbands and not necessarily in that order. Nan's brother has a house built 150 miles outside of their hometown. All three families 3 women 17 children would all merge there on random weekends throughout the year. We play in the woods, came back with poison oak and poison ivy, dripped in sweat with our clothes torn from running into bushes and brambles. Once her fourth grandson and her sisters' youngest boy went for a walk in the woods. It was innocent enough her grandson was 7 and his cousin was 12. Screaming and shouting started to fill the woods and no one could figure it out where it came from. Both boys were screaming and yelling "HELP" at the same time. We all ran to the edge of the woods and could not believe our eyes. Her grandson had stepped into a hive of wasps that had fallen to the ground

 This post came from the fourth grandson Thomas. As the only west coast grandson for many decades before the internet age I kept in touch with the east coast family through Nan's letters, packages of random goodies, and of course summer trips to Pennsylvania. Nan made sure I came for the reunion which were crazy, fun and memorable. I'd fly alone and she'd pick me up at the airport with balloons, treats and hugs. One particular reunion sticks out when we all stayed at a camp somewhere outside of our town. It had a big pool, rustic cabins, picnic areas and fields to play. Nan got me settled into my  cabin with some other cool cousins (they were all cool in my eyes) and let me unpack. I asked her if I needed my paper airplane ticket anymore. She said no so a little while later I tore it up and threw it away. I'm not sure why I tore it up but for some reason I was compelled to do so. Soon after, Nan realized I had torn up my return ticket home. Well the sent her into a pani