n is for Nana

Up until this point, I haven't used any people amongst the letters of this alphabet. And yet, I knew that "n" had to be for Nana. Nothing else would have felt right.

I suppose that every child looks at their grandparents with a special sort of awe, with the eye of an adoring youngster. I think that all of us grandkids looked to Nana in this way at one point or another. And while the eye of a child always matures, the love and admiration we had for her never dimmed. Nana knew how to laugh, how to love, and how to seek God. She spent her life doing these things and instilling them in those around her.

Her laughter, though often silent because she would just be giggling so hard, was contagious. She loved sharing stories of the past, stories of the childhood fun she used to have. But most often the heartiest laughs came during game-time....games of Yahtzee or Spoons. We'd squeel and laugh when the games would be at their wildest. No game was too loud or too silly for Nana.

Nana's love came through in lots of ways, but I think I most like remembering the little ways that she loved. She loved through baking cookies with us, and asking questions, and desiring to know all the details of our lives. She loved by sending notes on her personalized computer cards. She loved by birthday phone calls every year and harmonized living-room concerts. She loved through keeping the past alive and telling stories of the people who had touched her life so deeply. She loved with Skip-Bo games, with music, with hugs, and mostly with prayers.

But, if there's one way to describe Nana fully, it's by saying that she was a woman of God. Nana was always eager to discuss any Bible questions we might have. She wanted to absorb all the details of our lives so that she knew how to pray for us. She and Bop-Bop would spend every morning in prayer and studying God's word. Even when she could no longer leave the house for weekly church services and Bible studies, she prayed from her living room chair, and shared God's love with the many caregivers, nurses, and doctors whose paths crossed her own.

She enjoyed life. She loved deeply. She had incredible faith. And, I'm sure that anyone who knew Nana would tell you that the world just wouldn't have been complete without her being part of it.