One hundred years of strength, courage, and love

My father's mother, Annie Proffitt Lemmons, passed away this morning around 7 am.  She was a wonderfully strong woman, having worked all her life and raising 5 kids by herself.  My grandfather passed away when my dad was only 2 years old, so she worked very hard to support her family.  And I'm pretty sure my dad and his brother were a handful.  She also survived the death of 8 brothers and sisters, as well as the death of her son, Mac, 30 years ago.  Memaw turned 100 on July 1, 2010.  She had 4 surviving children, 9 grandchildren (of which I am the youngest), 14 great-grandchildren, and I'm a little fuzzy on the great-great-grandchildren.  Clearly, the family has gotten larger and larger...I'm pretty sure she had either 2 or 3 great-great-grands.

We were so blessed to be able to bring Emma to meet Memaw this past summer.  Memaw has had dementia for over a decade, so she hasn't known who any of us were for quite a while.  However, she still holds a special place in our hearts.  When we brought Emma to see her, Memaw of course didn't know who we were or anything like that, but when she was on her way back up to her room (escorted by my aunt on my OTHER side of the family), she all of a sudden said, "Baby."  And then went back to kind of mumbling.  So I like to think that she felt a connection to that baby.

If you want to know how to live for 100 years, here are the things that I remember Memaw doing religiously:
(1) Being involved in her church
(2) Watching Lawrence Welk
(3) Eating half a grapefruit every day (and I mean EVERY DAY) for breakfast
(4) Snoring like a foghorn

Try these four things for a long life with lots of people to love you.

My sister came home for Emma's birthday yesterday, and she and Emma had a great day together today.  Emma is very drawn to Anissa and flashed all her cutie patootie smiles.  Emma's becoming a pro at holding her hands up in the air, straight as a board, when you say, "Touchdown!"  She's also learning to do that at a certain part of a poem I'm teaching her.  She sounded a little snotty today, so I hope she doesn't wake up with a cold.

Here's the post from March 18, 2010.