Grandma Gets A Name

This is the story of the relative who would not be named until the time had come.

                                  ~~~

She's a toddler now and saying all kinds of words, which absolutely delights us. "Juice" is "geesh." Can't get any cuter.

She has been naming all things in her world, but one thing remained nameless; that thing was I, the maternal grandmother.

We would look at family photos, and she'd click off names: "Papaw, Meh Meh, Da da, Ditdin (Kristin)," etc. She can name objects in books, even some colors. But for the longest time, when I'd point to myself and ask, "And who is that?" She would purse her lips as if she were a prisoner holding a secret from an interrogator and with her little index finger swipe the page or picture on the phone and then begin anew exclaiming names for everything and everyone with a lot of energy. It was like the curtain of silence fell on her when my picture would show up. Once I was gone, the curtain lifted.

I started to get a complex. Maybe because George started calling me "Chopped Liver," just for fun.

I tried calling myself several cutesy names when I would talk to her: "Would you like Gramma to get your juice?" "Gigi loves you." Nothing stuck.

The only potential name I could not abide was "Meemaw." I think it sounds too much like "Heehaw" and brought up images of Cloris Leachman, "Mawmaw," on "Raising Hope."

Recently I decided to make a photo book for her on the Walgreen's site. I dropped in pics of everyone on both sides of her family, including great grandparents and family pets. Finally, it came to this: I had to name myself something.

I texted Katie, "I've got to call myself something. What should I choose for this book?" She replied, "Grammy. That's how I refer to you when I talk about you."

So "Grammy" was it. On July 30, 2014 I thought I became "Grammy."

On August 7, the book arrived. I was so excited to show her! I put her on my lap, opened the book and began to read about her mommy and daddy. She was very chatty about the pages, and when I turned to the page with my face on it, she took that little index finger over her shoulder and poked me under the chin, looked up and said as plain as day, "Nana."

"What? What did you just say, Child?!"

Oh, my heart leapt! I have a NAME! I am "NANA!"

And that is what I have heard all day long, every day that I've watched her since August 7. I was "Grammy" for about a week, just long enough to get it permanently into print. Looks like "Nana" is going to stick! I love it!

Books and Movies

So my English major daughter (soon to graduate--4 mos!) told me about this first book (Jealous? Who, me?) of Diane Setterfield that she and her roommate just finished which she highly recommended. Since she is a tough sell, I decided to check it out, literally, from the library and see what all the fuss was about. Now Jorge is reading it.

Many of you know I'm not a fiction person, and I rarely do a review, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think you might, too.

From the inside jacket: It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, and topiary garden and a devastating fire.

I loved being caught up in the mystery of the story of a famous authoress who decides to set the record of her life story straight before she passes away. And one of the main themes of the story explores "twinness," which I found fascinating.

Plus, you get lots of literary references which underscore an ode to the love of reading. If you like a Jane Eyre-ish type mystery, you might like this.

I just finished Simple Church, a book similar to Willow Creek's Reveal study, which looks at churches that successfully help new believers take the next steps in their growth, from being new believers to becoming fully-engaged, mature believers serving the community/world.

Basically, the authors purport that excessive programming is squashing growth rather than promoting it. Our staff is interested in this book because in our community, we are a large church which does a lot of programming. We're kind of reassessing where we are to see if we're on track with mentoring followers of Christ in our local body.

Just wondering about you church-goers out there ... do you have a problem with a small percentage of your congregation doing a large percentage of your volunteering? If not, how do you communicate the necessity of each person serving in some capacity or another?