On the day after my grandmother died in September 2000, I walked in her house and the memories nearly knocked me breathless. After a few minutes, I was able to sort through the powerful life-sized recollections that churned to overwhelm me. After all, I told myself, how very very blessed I am to have so many good memories of her! She was simply the best of the BEST.
I walked in the dining and living room which, except for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, was kept closed from the rest of the house. These rooms were always cold in the winter and warm in the summer until the holidays came and they took on lives of their own. I could smell the collard greens, turkey, ham, and her delectable coconut pie. I could hear Johnny Mathis and a very young Wayne Newton singing Christmas carols on the old phonograph. Grandma always kept the music going, and as I got older and more responsible, she allowed me to become the holiday DJ. Meticulously stacking four or five chosen 33’s on top of each other and watching the bottom record drop to the pad and the wobbly phonograph needle find its mark, I would begin dancing and singing. Often she would come and join me for a few minutes in between the holiday food preparation. It is one of my most vivid memories at Grandma Horrell’s house. Grandma echoed the excitement (or more likely I was echoing hers); and she once told me that she would get so excited the day before a holiday that she could barely sleep. She loved knowing that her house would soon be filled with her family.
We never felt like we were being too loud (except when our parents told us were....because grandma NEVER told us that) or that we were staying too long. Even when we brought friends with us unannounced, it was all right by grandma! After eating a huge meal and being stuffed to our mortal gills, grandma would exhort us to eat just one more piece of turkey, have one more slice of bread, and take one more helping of collards. Telling her that you were too full was a waste of breath.
The last few years of her life, she was not able to cook for the holidays, but even when mama and Aunt Barbara suggested having the holiday meal somewhere else, grandma refused. So those three ladies came to a compromise. Grandma promised not to lift a hand to the foot prep if the daughters would keep bringing the party and the family to her house for the holidays. None of us argued about that!
When granddaddy was still living, he would buy fireworks at Christmas time. One very warm Christmas Eve, the front door was opened and we five grandkids were outside doing our thing with the firecrackers and rockets. Well, I’m sure it was one of the boys who sent a rocket sailing through the screen door and onto grandma’s carpet. The adults were hollering and carrying on inside the house so much that we all ran away from the mayhem! When we heard grandma giving her famous, “It’s all right” speech, we sheepishly came out of our hiding place. Our parents were extremely upset with us, but grandma? Not at all. We were just children, she said, and it was Christmas, and it was all right.
Grandma was one of those ladies that loved her grandchildren so much, in fact, she was brave enough (or half crazy) to carry us all to her beach cottage for a week. No parents. Just us! She would let us swim in the water by the house, but we had to wear life jackets even when we were in our teens and could swim perfectly fine. I do understand that now. She was an adventurous lady with very practical concerns.
Grandma loved the Lawrence Welk show and sometimes when I would stay with her on the weekends, she would teach me how to do the Tango and the Charleston. She had some amazing “happy feet” and was agile and spunky also! What fun we would have whirling around in the den to the music of the past. I didn’t care what kind of music it was. I was with my grandma and she was dancing with me. Those memories are some that I have determined to carry on with my own grandchildren. Dance parties are just a normal thing with Noni Kim and hopefully will for a long time to come.
Grandaddy and Grandma took all the grandkids to Kitty Hawk and Hatteras one summer. What a wonderful time we had! We saw the Wright Brothers’ Memorial and even saw the play The Lost Colony. But the thing we enjoyed the most was the motel pool. Granddaddy once had to go out and pick up dinner to bring back to us because we didn’t want to stop swimming. Grandma was our faithful lifeguard even though she couldn’t swim a lick. But she sat out there with us as long as we wanted to stay!
If I had to sum up Grandma in just a few words, I would have to say that she loved me unconditionally and I never doubted it. It didn’t matter what we did, it was always all right. No matter how many times we made bad choices, even in our adult lives, she kept proclaiming how proud she was of us. I know she helped to mold me into the person I am today. There is absolutely no doubt about that. The self-confidence and awareness of who I could be, my sense of humor, and just the realization that being together is one of the most important thing we can do as grandparents. Spending time - quality - unhurried - unfettered - unconditional time with our grand kids. Singing with them, dancing with them, feeding them, encouraging them, and instilling in them a love for God, for life, and for others.
At the end of her life, she taught me to sing. My mom and I were with her just a few days before she went to heaven, watching as she gave us a glimpse into the celestial realm. She prayed, sang, and testified of Jesus’ love and how much she looked forward to seeing Him. The song that was going around in her heart was Jesus Jesus Jesus, Sweetest Name I Know. When I started singing it with her, she told me that I was not singing it right. Well, I suppose not if she was hearing the singing of the heavenly host of angels. While she swayed between this world and her eternal home, we saw the depth of her love for us, but even more for her Savior and for those that she had loved so dearly that were waiting for her in Heaven.
I love her more than life and want so much to be the same kind of grandmother to my six grandchildren! For her simple appreciation of love and life and family, for her love of cooking for her family, her laughter and dancing and singing, and her words of wisdom about love and matters of the heart. She lived out her faith in a quiet, simple way. But above all that, she loved me. She saw great potential in me and she loved being with me. And for that, I could never thank her enough.
You live on through me, Grandma. In the way I love my grandchildren, in the way I love to spend time with them, in the way I love to explore with them, in the way I love to impart words of wisdom, and in the simple way of just being a grandmother that makes my grandchildren’s lives richer and fuller. And I love telling them that everything will be all right.
Because when I was with her, it truly was.
Grandaddy and Grandma took all the grandkids to Kitty Hawk and Hatteras one summer. What a wonderful time we had! We saw the Wright Brothers’ Memorial and even saw the play The Lost Colony. But the thing we enjoyed the most was the motel pool. Granddaddy once had to go out and pick up dinner to bring back to us because we didn’t want to stop swimming. Grandma was our faithful lifeguard even though she couldn’t swim a lick. But she sat out there with us as long as we wanted to stay!
If I had to sum up Grandma in just a few words, I would have to say that she loved me unconditionally and I never doubted it. It didn’t matter what we did, it was always all right. No matter how many times we made bad choices, even in our adult lives, she kept proclaiming how proud she was of us. I know she helped to mold me into the person I am today. There is absolutely no doubt about that. The self-confidence and awareness of who I could be, my sense of humor, and just the realization that being together is one of the most important thing we can do as grandparents. Spending time - quality - unhurried - unfettered - unconditional time with our grand kids. Singing with them, dancing with them, feeding them, encouraging them, and instilling in them a love for God, for life, and for others.
At the end of her life, she taught me to sing. My mom and I were with her just a few days before she went to heaven, watching as she gave us a glimpse into the celestial realm. She prayed, sang, and testified of Jesus’ love and how much she looked forward to seeing Him. The song that was going around in her heart was Jesus Jesus Jesus, Sweetest Name I Know. When I started singing it with her, she told me that I was not singing it right. Well, I suppose not if she was hearing the singing of the heavenly host of angels. While she swayed between this world and her eternal home, we saw the depth of her love for us, but even more for her Savior and for those that she had loved so dearly that were waiting for her in Heaven.
I love her more than life and want so much to be the same kind of grandmother to my six grandchildren! For her simple appreciation of love and life and family, for her love of cooking for her family, her laughter and dancing and singing, and her words of wisdom about love and matters of the heart. She lived out her faith in a quiet, simple way. But above all that, she loved me. She saw great potential in me and she loved being with me. And for that, I could never thank her enough.
You live on through me, Grandma. In the way I love my grandchildren, in the way I love to spend time with them, in the way I love to explore with them, in the way I love to impart words of wisdom, and in the simple way of just being a grandmother that makes my grandchildren’s lives richer and fuller. And I love telling them that everything will be all right.
Because when I was with her, it truly was.
