A few nights ago I sat on the couch, in between my Nana and Pappy, as we flipped through the latest addition of our family calendar. My aunt has made this her annual tradition, to compose a calendar with each new year--complete with pictures of the entire family as well as important dates in the lives of each member. Our family is not small, so this calendar is quite impressive…and reminds me that I have A LOT to keep up with!
As we laughed and reminisced about many of the old pictures included, we arrived at a picture of Nana Brock--my Nana’s mother. Pappy leaned over and said, “That Nana…she was a fine lady. Did you know her?” I quickly (and defensively) responded, “PAPPY!! Yes, of course I knew her!” I came into this side of the family later in life (by marriage--after my dad married my step-mom) so his question was relatively justified...but I think my quick response came from the known impact Nana Brock’s life had on mine. She was one of the sweetest, most thoughtful and respectable ladies one could ever meet. And you can clear that by anyone who knew her. At her funeral it was asked that anyone who had ever received a hand-written, personal note from Nana Brock please stand…I’ll have you know, that entire place was on its feet. It gave me chills as I remembered all of the meaningful notes she sent my way while I was off at college. Knowing what those meant to me, and realizing how many other lives she must have touched with similar notes. Thoughtful notes just letting us know she was thinking about and praying for us. And she was, faithfully.
One of my favorite stories involves my friend from high school, Jennifer, who was over at her great-grandmother’s house one afternoon. She was looking at pictures and all of the sudden spotted my graduation picture. She surprisingly said, “NANA! Why do you have a picture of Emily Crawford?!” Nana Brock responded, “Well that’s my great-granddaughter”! Little did we know that Nana Brock was the great-grandmother to us both. Like I said, I was her 'acquired' great-granddaugther as a result of marriage…but still! Wild. That’s one thing about having a large family, you never know who you are related to. Ha! You can be sure we all had a good laugh at that one.
Jennifer went on to marry another one of my high school friends, Jason. I must say, it is still a little strange flipping through the annual family calendar and seeing my old high school friends in there! :) However, I am proud to call them family and love that they are a part of it. I was blessed to recently take some maternity pictures for Jennifer, and was excited that Jason was willing to jump in on a few! And I’ll be even more excited when we can officially add their sweet expected, little Ava Grace, to our family calendar!
Congratulations, Jennifer and Jason…love you guys!
These are gorgeous!!
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