Grandma B

I started this process by looking for some pictures of my step-mother. It didn't take long for me to remember that the vast majority of my pictures are in storage in the US. Bummer. I do have pictures from 2004 on here with me in France, so you will have the added bonus of seeing what the girls looked like in their first few years. Now onto the real reason that I am writing this.

The first memory that I have of my step-mother was in September 1988. She and Dad had been dating for a few months, but we had not met. She came to AuntT's birthday party with a great game. I think it is called Lover's knot. It is a string game where 2 people are attached by 2 strings and have to figure out how to get untangled without untying their strings. This was to go one for many more birthdays. She always had games for us to play. One year, she had a clown for a joint birthday party (I often celebrated with my step-brother as our birthdays are less than a week apart). I remember the games that year being more a long the lines of carnival games. You know, things like the ring toss and such.

Then there were the party decorations. The rule in her house was that you had to wear whatever decorations came on your gifts, and the gift-giver got to decide where to put the decorations! I had a HUGE red, white, and blue bow to wear on top of my head for my 18th birthday. Boy I wish I could show you that picture. Too funny. The decoration thing got so out of control that one sister ended up with plastic bugs taped to her.

The most special decorations were the Barbara Boxes. These were specially wrapped boxes that were beautiful, and were used over and over again. Being a family of paper rippers, these boxes were a challenge for us. We had to be trained on how to open them. She would wrap the box top in gorgeous paper, then decorate it with bows, stickers, and more. These decorations stayed on the boxes, and you did not rip the paper. These were works of art, and I always looked forward to the holiday event where I got to see which box was mine this time.

She introduced us to Santa Mouse, and made a Santa Mouse costume for the grandchildren to wear when they helped pass out the Santa Mouse gifts. The Misses have missed out on wearing the costume as they have grown too big while we have been over here. We all still enjoy the story though. Some of us even have our own copies.

Grandma B helped me decorate our first house. She and my Dad came to visit one weekend, and helped me build an herb garden, then helped me decorate our kitchen. I had a lot of pottery and no idea what to do with it. She suggested that I arrange them in the space above my kitchen cupboards. She even climbed up on the step-ladder to make some adjustments for me. She also made curtains for the living room in the first house I lived in alone.

Here are Grandma B and Grandpa W the very first time Grandma got to see the girls. She is holding Miss S. The girls were about 5 months old at the time. Grandma didn't get to come visit them in the hospital because it was getting very hard for her to travel.
Christmas 2005 - Grandma and Grandpa gave the girls a Radio Flyer wagon, and enjoyed pulling the girls around their living room. That was a good thing because the girls didn't want to get out of it! Here is Grandma B and Miss M playing with the flashlight the Grands gave the girls. It looks like a tiger, and roars when you turn it on. It is still one of the favorite toys in our house.
I know that you cannot see what Miss S has on her finger so I'll tell you. This is one of the Misses' favorites memories of their Grandma B. This happened in May, 2006, shortly before we moved to France. I was in the kitchen cooking something when I heard lots of whispers and giggles from the living room. I came in to see the Misses running around the room sporting Grandma's jewelry, including her lady bug earrings. Miss S was wearing Grandma's wedding ring. I sort of freaked out. I could just imagine that ring, or some of her other jewelry getting lost, or the girls having a fit when it was time to give it back. Grandma B was totally relaxed and having a blast. They still talk about the time they got to play with Grandma's jewelry. And we didn't lose any of it!
These two pictures are from the same weekend. Grandma's health was deteriorating, but she pulled that wagon just the same. And she sat out in the humid Carolina heat and played in the sand box. We even went to the park where she played with the girls until I said it was time to go home (I am not sure which of the 3 was the most disappointed).
Grandma managed to dodge the camera in August, 2006. We were back at their house, and she had been on the floor playing with the girls. The first picture is Miss S laughing at her Grandma. The second is of the girls looking at all of the construction stuff they had been playing with with Grandma.
This picture is from last summer. We were visiting Grandma B and Grandpa W. The Grands had given the girls these really cute dresses that have all kinds of pictures of French things on them. Miss S immediately identified the Eiffel Tower. The girls really like those dresses.

Barbara was an amazing woman. I know we will all miss her. I think it is a family goal to keep some of her traditions alive, and to remember just what a great part of our family she was.

Note: I just wanted to thank all of you who have been thinking about and praying for all of us in the past few days. Your comments and e-mails have meant so much to me.