A project

On this, my first full day back home, I started to collect some items to take back to Boone with me. I was rummaging through my bookshelf and the mountain of books on it and came across a particular book (really, a binder) that I have had for years. This book contains many poems and stories from my great-grandmother (Mom's grandmother). I was fortunate enough to know this amazing lady for more than 17 years. It's been a little over 5 years since she passed away. Up until the last week of her life (at the age of 99), she was still able to walk (with assistance from a walker or cane), talk, feed and take care of herself. She lived in an assisted living facility for the last 6 years (or thereabouts) and prior to that, she lived in her own home, by herself. She kept it up and cooked and cleaned. I can only hope to be that well off if I make it to that age.

Anyway, Great-Grandmama (as I called her), was a school teacher. She taught 2nd and 3rd grade in Micro (yes, that is a real town and it does live up to its name) for MANY years. I have actually had some of her students as my patients (that's a different story all together, though). She was also the oldest of 13 children (the youngest of her siblings was her daughter's, my grandmother, age).

During her years teaching , she collected poems and stories, many that she had memorized, and used them in her classroom with the students. Great-Grandmama wrote some of these poems and stories, while others she clipped from magazines or copied from books. She compiled all of these into a single binder that she used them. Somehow, I have inherited it.

A few years ago, nearly 10 to be exact, Mom and I started to type these stories and poems up to have a more permanent copy of them and present it to Great-Grandmama for her 95th birthday (December 24, 2000 -- a Christmas Eve baby). We got (perhaps) half of them typed up and bound and gave it to her for her birthday that year.

I have decided to undertake a new project and get all of them compiled together and typed up so that they can be bound and used in the future. As I am looking at completing my master's degree in teaching, they may come of use to me. I think I am going to do this project and present it as a gift to Mom and my grandmother for Christmas. I think they would both like that. (And, as neither of them read this, I can say that here without fear of ruining the surprise.)