6 Months Later and Still Missing Her...

Last August, I got a call from my Dad that it was time for me to make the trip home to say goodbye to my precious Nana. We had known for sometime that this day was coming. In past couple of years she had experienced a decline in health and was living in a skilled nursing facility or as she affectionately referred to it, "The Home." As we get older the circle of life becomes so much more real. We begin having and watching our own children grow-up while saying goodbye to those who shaped us in so many more ways than could ever be conveyed in a single blog. I didn't just lose a grandparent with Nana.... I lost a friend, confidant and virtual savior. She was and is such a huge part of who I am today and six months later, I still think of her everyday and either want to laugh out loud or cry.

When making arrangements for the funeral I offered to speak about what she meant to me the past 27 years. It was very the least that I could do. So better late than never, I would like to share what I read that day:

"We are all here today because we were lucky enough to know Helen Smith. I consider myself most fortunate not only because she was my Nana but because I was able to spend the majority of my life, thus far, living just a stones throw away on a little piece of property that we all called, "The Sound."

I first moved to the sound when I was only 3 years old. I loved being able to go to my grandparents house for waffles in the morning and to swim in the pool. I would walk down the dirt road to my house later in the day only to hear my phone ringing and Nana asking if I wanted to come back down for a deviled egg sandwich and a coke... I always did.

I could count on her for almost anything. I would call and leave messages daily and even taught her how to punch in that 3 digit code on the back of her answering machine so that she could check her messages from her daily golf lesson at The Cape...and she always did.

The older I got, the more challenging I became and after I lost my license I became dependent on Nana, yet again. Only this time I was beyond embarrassed to be 17 and have my grandmother picking me up each day from Hoggard. Everyday I asked her, "Nana, please stay in the car! " and every single day at 3:30, I would leave class to find her in the middle of the forum talking to who else? The coolest kids in school. She would be asking them, "Have you seen my granddaughter, Kelley Smith?" I was mortified.

Then my freshman year in college, still without a license, I wouldn't even let her get near the campus. I would walk over a mile each away to avoid similar embarrassment. And regardless of the fact that I behaved like an ungrateful brat, who jammed rap music at the Sunbirds highest deciable...she still showed up faithfully each day and never once judged me. That is who she was. She very well may have been the strongest woman I have ever known. She was loyal and she loved her family more than anything.

So finally, after many wonderful years and more recently a couple of tough ones, she is at peace and reunited with her WG "Bill" Smith. And while we will miss such an amazing woman we are comforted in knowing that everything is as it should be. And not that I would ever have to remind the pro to do this, but I am confident that when she reaches her tee time in the sky we can all expect her to..."Sit down. Hug the Ground. Shift your weight and SWING THE CLUB!" "

Love you Nana, miss you.