Today would have been my Granny’s eightieth birthday. She passed away when I was sixteen. Oh how I adored her. Some of my favorite childhood memories were spent alone with her. Which was extra special since our family was so large and while I was the first grand baby there are so many of us grandchildren now!

Granny & Paw-Paw had drastically different sleep patterns. Paw-Paw would go to bed very early and wake up long before sunrise to drink his black coffee with one ice cube and watch his fishing shows. Granny on the other hand was the night owl. A trait I may have gotten from her. She would stay up all night long watching QVC. I can still remember her having her QVC account number sticker on every phone in the house. Then at some who knows how late hour she would go to sleep in her very dark bedroom and sleep in. It was these different sleep patterns that would allow me to have time with both of them and then one on one time with each of them during my sleep overs that I doubt either of them knew just how much I would forever cherish. I remember I almost always never brought pj’s there because Granny always had this one Orange Crush t-shirt that she kept for me to sleep in. Ironically, after getting sick from a glucose test that was orange soda flavored while pregnant with Budah I have never drank that stinkin’ soda again. Yet I still think of my Granny as soon as I see it anywhere. Red lipstick also has the same affect on me. Maybe that’s why I like to wear it all the time now?

There are certain rituals she had that I doubt I will ever forget. Like her red lipstick, late nights with QVC, her long brown cigarettes, her single scoop of K&B vanilla ice cream each night, her ability to always make every single grandchild feel special, how she managed to pull off the very best parties, the bobbing for apples at Halloween, the change filled Easter egg hunts, how she would have each of her children come at a specific time for Christmas so she could watch each of her six kids individual families exchange gifts before we all had a Christmas dinner together, & probably one of my favorites that always seemed to amuse me was her coin purse with all of her cash & a pill bottle that she always had tucked away in her bra. She was a hoot! But one thing she made sure of before that heartbreaking day on November 21, 1995 that she left us was that we all knew just how much she loved us and what an incredibly strong fighter she truly was. She is still so very missed all these years later. And her memory carries on as I am able to pass on some of the same traditions to our lil monsters now. Happy birthday to my beautiful spit fire of a Granny!