January 15th

I had forgotten about this picture until last night when I was searching through some old albums at my Parent's house. I LOVE this picture! This is me on the left with my Nana (Dad's Mom) in the middle and my cousin Sarah on the right. My Nana was reading to us. I LOVE to read, I have a passion for reading and I can 100% credit my Nana for helping instill that in me. Nana would read to me all the time. When I started to read she had an entire treasure trove of books and she gladly let me read anything I could get my hands on. A huge collection of Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys books and a huge collection of The Box Car Children books, I'm pretty sure I read every single one. She would also give me books for all special ocasions...A collection of "Classics" Black Beauty, Heidi, Hans Christian Anderson, Little Women etc. One of my most prize possesions is a leather bound first edition of "Jane Eyre" that she gave me on one of my Birthdays (we always celebrated our Birthdays together, because hers was on 6/20 and mine on 6/26). I have probably read that book 10 times in my life. I also have this copy of Pinochio that is really, really old that she gave me. It was pre-owned when she got it for me...the illustrations in it are really old and almost creepy, and the book, even after all these years, has this really distinct "wood" smell to it. Funny considering the story!

I loved my Nana and because she lived next door to me I spent a lot of time with her growing up. She was a beautiful person and one of the smartest people I have ever known. She was the Vice President of a bank and I remember vividly how she used to always dress "just so"with beautiful jewlery and matching shoes. She was always so "put together". When I was a young teenager we were given the devestating news that my beloved Nana was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease. A tragic diagnosis that had no cure, and still doesn't. My Nana progressed slowly in her disease for the first several years. She stayed at home and was cared for at home. We would still walk to the country store down the road from our house and buy "Nabs" and "Little Cokes" (the small ones in the glass bottles) together, even after she had to retire from her job. There finally came a time when it became very difficult for me to visit her anymore. It was so hard for me to see her in the state that she was in. She had regressed to the point of not caring about her appearance, not eating unless she was made to and she didn't recognize us most of the time. Then when she did recognize me she would say my name over and over again 100's of times, as if willing herself not to forget! I admit that the last couple of years of my Nana's life I was not around her as much as I should have been. My Nana started getting sick when I was about 13 years old, she did not die until January 1997 when I was 20 years old. She was in a nursing home at that point, but she had only been there for about 2 months when she passed away. I went to see her the night before she died and it is a decision I question myself for to this day. I can't even describe how sad it was without opening a huge wound in my heart.

I loved my Nana, she was larger than life to me. I was her first Grandchild and I have often been told I look like she did when she was younger. We have the exact same skin tone and eye color! I gave my first born child her name to honor her. She was a wonderful, loving, person and though I was an adult when she died I lost her many years before that when she and I were far too young. I have many special memories with my Nana, from her taking me shopping and buying me beautiful clothes, to all the wonderful books I still have, to her baking the best chocolate chip cookies and fudge at the Holidays, to her always making me drink and finish my milk at dinner time. She remains present in my heart.

Shirley Page Eubank Chenault