Our Little Nana.

Our little nana was the reason I was potty trained, bottle broke and walking before I was a year old.

She's also the reason you can't tell none of us nothin'...because we never did anything wrong enough for anyone other than her to be mad at us.

They say the most dangerous place to be is between a parent and their child...but our little nana never hesitated to jump in between and run block for us. we did no wrong unless she decided we did.

She was the little nana that came to every sporting event, be it freezing cold or hotter than hell, and even if she had to go into work afterwards having very little sleep, she was there front and center. Even if she didn't understand the sport, and most of the time she didn’t have a clue, she was still our biggest fan. I've seen her be one of a just a few who cared enough to be in the bleachers to watch me cheer at a girls' basketball game on a snowy winter night, and I've also seen her run down the sidelines at a peewee football game squealing so hard she almost peed her pants because Wyatt got his hands on a quarterback and the crowd went wild.  

She was at every kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and high school graduation, for all of us...even when covid restrictions wouldn't allow her to attend the ceremony...she made sure she was there waiting outside.  

Our little nana would make enough biscuits and sausage gravy in a cast iron skillet to feed a house full every Saturday morning, and she very well may have been somewhere with me having a margarita on the rocks, or a shot of tequila with salt and lime, that same Saturday night.  

She was the little nana that would throw herself together in record time after working all day to go with us to see David Allan Coe play at a bar or find herself a ride downtown to take our extra ticket to see George Strait at the yum center.

She was the little nana that would drink too much at the company Christmas party and then rent us a room at the hotel, so no one had to drive home.  

She was the little nana that would have given us the shirt off her back every single time...but you better believe we were going to hear about how we ended up desperate enough to need her damn shirt... and we were going to have to mow her yard a couple times to make up for it.  

She was the little nana who would get pulled over for speeding in a 6-speed wrangler, and then make one of us do the online traffic class for her so she didn't get points against her license.

Our little nana is the reason I know that sometimes you have to take apart the vacuum and wash the parts. she's the reason I know that mean green from the dollar store is the best stuff to use to get the green crap off the siding on your house…and that vinegar will make your floors shine better than anything else will, even though it smells bad.

She was the best partner to lay out in the sun with, as long as you knew not to try and outlast her in the heat. and if you messed up and tried to hang with her, she'd have the vinegar out again…spraying you down with it on the back porch so your sunburn would go in. 

She was also the nana that would drink more Pina coladas than anyone else by the pool, then get mad at everyone except the one making the Pina coladas. Sandi was definitely the favorite that day, even though I had to drive her home.  

She would cook you whatever you wanted for dinner the Sunday after your birthday... with the exception of salmon patties...because she most certainly didn't want her house to stink when people were coming over.  

Our little nana never sugar coated a single thing, she said what she thought, and she stood on it. you either agreed with her or you were wrong.

She was a spoiler...a provider and a protector.  she was tough as nails, and bat shit crazy.  coming in at five foot nothing and weighing maybe a hundred pounds soaking wet...our little nana was fearless.  

She'd drive straight thru to Florida by herself in the middle of the night with her .38 in the glovebox, she'd hop on a plane or a boat and go anywhere.  she'd ride on the back of motorcycle, or in between me and mom in a side by side without a second thought.

Our little nana was independent. stubborn. sassy. loyal. and proud. she was loving. successful. durable, dependable, resilient...she was tough, she was rugged, she was meaner than a snake...she had true grit.  

A lot of people have said she was also sweet...I guess that means she must have been nicer to you all than she was to us…because the good lord knows, she never cut us any slack.

I have heard people describe her as one of a kind, a spit fire, a firecracker...but to us our little nana was very simply...everything. She was the littlest and the biggest part of our lives, all at the same time.  

We've always joked with each other about how we are all destined to be just like her one day...and every time I take a hot bath and wish someone would come wash my back or drink a hot cup of coffee with hazelnut creamer...or fuss about my house needing to be cleaned when it doesn't...I know I'm getting closer.

Mom always said that our little nana could sure ruin a good kid, and that with each one of us that came along we got a little bit worse...I managed to be the self-proclaimed favorite for a long time - and Tess never could take that title from me because she picked her nose - however, when that first great grandchild came along...I didn't stand a chance anymore.

I think I speak for all of her grandchildren...for myself, Tess, Wyatt, Colton, Zetta and all the others she claimed and loved without hesitation over the years...when i say we wouldn't be who we are today without her crazy way of loving us, which a lot of times looked a whole lot like bullying us.  

Though we may look like great big babies today, and in the days in to come... everything our little nana did, prepared us for when we had to take on this world without her. she's the reason we are tough...she's the reason we are solid...she's the reason why we will get through this. she was literally the realest one on our team.

In our hearts and in our souls, for the rest of our lives...we will always be what we were blessed to be as soon as we entered this world.... even without her here to remind us, we will always be proud to be our nana's little babies.  🖤