On my Grandmother's Birthday...

Today would have been my Grandmother's 91st birthday. 
I had the best Granny in the world.  I am not just saying that either.  I know sometimes people look back through rose colored glasses and see things as better than they were but that is simply not the case here.  She was the best.  Want to know how I know?  Because even when I was a child, a teenager, a young adult...whenever, I knew she was the best.  She was the type of Granny that opened the door wide open for her grandchildren.  She would host New Year Eve party's for us and all six of the grandchildren would spend the night and wreak havoc all night long.  And she wouldn't even send us home on New Year's Day!  We could stay that night too! 
Granny would go to garage sales and give us each some money to buy things.  We used to love getting up early on Saturday mornings, sitting at the breakfast table and planning our route.  She would also buy incredible things for us.  Once she bought us a mannequin!  I mean, who does that?  We had every comic book known to mankind and costumes galore!  She would get us old Opryland costumes and we used them to put on plays all of the time.  She would sit through endless hours of our plays.  We would have at least ten thousand "Granny of the Year" plays and she never even acted annoyed when they would dissolve into absolute silliness and giggles. 
She instilled a strong sense of family in all of us.  We grew up with our cousins and we are all friends to this day.  She would take all six of us on fun trips like Chattanooga where we would stay on the train.  I remember the time she was going through "Fat Man's Squeeze" in Rock Island and she acted like she was stuck.  I loved it so much I did the same thing to my children when we went decades later. 
Once my grandfather was home from work because of the snow and he decided to rearrange my Granny's kitchen cabinets.   That is one of my favorite memories.  It was so funny to see her fuming and begging him to get out of her kitchen. 
When she moved onto the old Langford Estate in Langford Farms there were no other homes there and she would let us drive her car all around the Estate.  We were about fourteen at the time.  She probably figured out that might not be the wisest idea when she was planting in the garage and I drove her car through the garage door.  Hmmmm...that memory is still not funny!
Her house was always full of people.  We were in and out of there all of the time.  She would just sit in her chair and wait on us.  She knew sooner or later one of us (or all of us) would be dropping by to see her.
She always kept candy in her candy jars, there was always diet coke in her fridge.  These are little things but it was the little things that made my Granny so awesome.  She understood traditions and values.  She was one of the strongest women I have ever known.  I never saw her cry but I had often seen her laugh.  She was strong and proud and warm and I miss her so much sometimes I don't think I can bear it.   She always said she was so lucky that she was not one of those lonely old women whose family thought of them as a burden at best.  I say we were the lucky ones. 
She died exactly like she lived.  Surrounded by every single one of us.   I think she would have liked that.