Lots of Nana (as in Jesse HtW Gray)

There has been alot of Nana reminders around lately.

I was at a memorial service on Friday and they concluded the service with a bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace." On any given day that hymn wrecks me. Teary, teary, teary. But on bagpipes? Forget about it. Tears? Try sobs.

Then this weekend I have been making Scottish shortbread. Lots of it. With every poke of the fork in the dough before baking, with every cut of the cooling shortbread, I remember Nana.

I know we can pass memories down, and I will. But they of course won't mean the same thing to Winston as they do to me. Since we live so far away from family we try to talk about the family members who are still with us. Make them real to Winston. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.

But by sharing with him my memories of my grandparents, I give him family history. Legacy. All that good stuff. Granted, he won't have the attachement to them that I do. Nor should he. I want him to build his own memories of his times with his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. But he will have his own memories of his mom telling him stories, making him help with the shortbread and talk about his great-great-grandmother. I will share as many stories as I can about relatives who have passed. But the "Nana- Connection" runs deep in family lore.

I can tell him that he had a cousin who always reminded us of Nana. A cousin who died within 4 days after he was born. Whose spirit I am convinced hangs out with Winston occasionally. I can tell Winston that he has an angel named Gail, who was alot like Nana. I can tell Winston that I think his cousin Leah looks like Nana. Winston and Leah are only 6 mos apart. And I can ask Winston to look in the mirror. Look at his eyes. The only person on either side of his family that has/had eyes quite that blue was Nana - aka Jesse Hewitt Thompson Walker Gray.