Grandma Betty

When Hottie Husband and I started dating in high school, one of the first things I loved best about him were his grandmothers. At that time, his maternal and paternal grandmothers were both alive as well as two great-grandmothers. None of my grandmothers were still living so I wanted them to all adopt me as their own. They eventually did and for that I am grateful.

This is Grandma Betty. She is one of the most amazing people I know.

Her 81st birthday was yesterday.

She is absolutely in love with Little Bear and will hold him any chance she gets.
I try to pop by her house when he is awake so they can spend time together.

Let me share this incredible woman with you...

She has amazing strength and a servant's heart in her chest. She will do anything to help. When HH and I were first married, she came over and helped move large rocks to a pile in the driveway to help us with some landscaping. This made me a nervous wreck, but HH thought nothing of it because he had seen her do things like this since he was a child. He was used to her being a worker and just jumping in without a fuss. His mother is the same way.

She is thin as a rail, but her strength and endurance are amazing. When she has the family over for dinner, we can never get her to sit down to eat. She is always making sure everyone has everything they need. I think last night was the first time I have ever seen her eat her dinner and it was because it was her birthday and we forced her. She was still last.

Here are a few of her things she gave me permission to share with you...

Can you tell what her favorite color is?

You guessed it! She is the ultimate Purple Lady.

Her closet is full of purple clothes and her house is full of purple items.

And she still drives this cool little PT Cruiser.

My kids used to call it the PT Woozer.

They love it when, from time to time, she picks them up from school in it.

I think the thing that defines her most is her love story.

She is deeply in love with Hottie Husband's grandfather.

His name is Hugh and here is a picture of them together. This is what they looked like when I first met them.

They met when she was just thirteen and he was fourteen.

This is a photograph of them at that age.

They had their first date at those tender ages and never dated another.

They were crazy about each other from the start.

They did have to be briefly separated one time when he was still fourteen. Hugh had called Betty on the telephone, but her sister had answered. Teasing him, the sister had said that another boy was after Betty. Well, Hughie, as everyone called him, got in a car and was racing to her house when he was caught by the police. They sent him "away" so Santa Barbara. She still has the letters he sent to her during that time.

She cut pieces of some and put them together like this.

Isn't that beautiful?

Hughie's parents wouldn't let them get married until he turned twenty, so three days after his twentieth birthday, they were married.

These are some of her treasures from him. The heart is the first gift he ever gave her and the footballs are awards of his from high school.

Hughie and Betty had four children together and years that were not always easy. But, their love for each other never wavered. When Betty was still working and he was retired, he would get up every morning, make her coffee and start her car for her.

On Valentine's Day, two weeks before Jackie Boy was born, Grandpa Hughie gave Grandma Betty two gifts in the morning. He gave her a new purple wallet and a purple purse. Later that day, he died quickly and peacefully in the waiting room of a doctor's office. It was a complete shock to us all, especially Grandma Betty. I remember her being so graceful and composed and her worrying about pregnant me when I sobbed. She took care of everyone else at her most painful moment.

Just the other day, she told me it had always been their plan that she was going to go first. Sometimes when she speaks of Hughie, you can tell that she is just waiting to be with him again.

We commiserated about how blessed we both were to love and be loved like that.

Wanting to learn more about her, I asked her what her favorite thing was. She doesn't like to throw anything away, so I was curious how she would narrow it down. But, she had found something very special recently. It was a postcard from her father to her mother.

Then, she couldn't remember where she had put it and it bothered her. She searched all day and was so happy to share it with me when she found it. I'm so glad she did.

This is the front of the postcard. I love the poem.

It was sent in 1914 and it cost two cents.

He wrote- I am still waiting to get a real long letter from my baby doll. I am getting awful lonesome.

Last night as Grandma Betty's son said a prayer over her birthday meal, he said,

"Dad was our hero, but Mom is our heart."