A visit with Granma and Grandpa Anderson was a treat because they lived in Hiland Park on Sarasota Avenue, whereas Granma and Granpa Pratt lived next door and we were with them every day.
Grandpa Anderson would start saying "Pallie we have to go home" about 10 minutes after they arrived at our house.
When I was real little they lived in West Bay. When I was about five years old I got to spend a week or two with them. Being the oldest grandchild on either side I reckon I got spoiled a little. I remember it was hot sumertime and Granma filled a washtub with water out in the yard in the sun and when it got warm I played in it. Better than any old store-bought wading pool!
Right across the highway was Uncle Bonnie and Aunt Edith Buchanan's home on the canal and the store where Aunt Edith was postmistress. Uncle Bonnie usually had a raccoon in a cage out front. I remember when I was bigger he conjured a wart off my knee.
Uncle Kade was just three years older than me; I'm not sure about the ages of the Buchanan cousins (but I could go look em up in the family genealogy-- Any comments and info will be welcomed. :~)
I have always been proud of Granma's work at the big shipyard during the War. AS Barry used to say, "She's a sport!" In later years she worked at Hentz's Grocery downtown, making doughnuts. After Granpa passsed away, she lived in what we used to call the "Peacock House" on Pratt Point in Parker , and I now call "Granma's House" (even though it isn't any more). I remember her big beautiful hydrangeas, and the best sunset on the Bay. Loved her front yard; it was easy to get down to the water. We had a great family reunion there one year; I was working for the News Herald and did a full page spread on the reunion. One photo included all three sets of twins--Buddy's, Vivian's and Jimmy's. If I can scan that NH page successfully, I'll post it. (if it's not too faded.)
This post could easily evolve into a biography. But not right now. Housework calls.

Me with Granpa and Grandma Anderson.

To be or not to be a Blogger. I guess that's the question.

I'm beginning to think blogging is beyond me. Kind of like I drive a car . I can drive it but I don't really know why it goes.

I'm trying to move photo albums from FaceBook to my blog--unsuccessfully, so far.

And how do you get people to read your blog? Or to comment, if they do read?

This is a photo of Roy I shot at Zoe Family Clinic last month.

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At left I think is the earliest photo of Mother I have: Burrus left, Bernice, right and Grayce in chair.At right, posed on our front porch,(l-r)Margaret, Grayce, Joyce and Bernice c.1944?. bottom, Uncle Noah, home on leave, with his sisters

I seem to have forgotten all I learned about blog layout and posting. Please bear with me.My focus now is going to be Mother's life. I want to post photos of her "from Stuart to Stuart" --when she met him in 1933 until she reunited with him Jan 25, 2012.

She told me that when May Beck introduced her and Grayce to Stuart at the pier in St Andrews where the Steamer Tarpon was docked, and as they were walking back to the Beck home where they boarded, she said to her sister, "That's the man I'm going to marry." Sometimes it does happen that way....
I have photos from every period of their life together I want to show you...

Memories of Mother

The top 3 photos are from Mother's 90th Birthday Party at the fellowship hall. The bottom photo, Kaitlin and Laura sit with her in 2011 . Mother's wearing her Christmas hat (2010). She kept her smile, even when she didn't talk much. Photo 1 "Sisters" Bernice and Margaret--Best Friends (2) Me and Mother (3)Mother with Kaitlin

New Beginning

As you can see I haven't posted for a long time. I started this blog while employed at Bay County Public Library. Now I want to start blogging seriously.
I retired on Jan 2, 2010 and you'd think at 74 I'd have been prepared. Not so. The transition from working fulltime to not has been traumatic. More about that later.

Our biggest news right now is that Mother died January 25 surrounded by family and friends and caregivers at Panama City Nursing Home. She was 96 years old. She had not been well for some months, and had stopped talking to me very often or eating very much.

God is so Good. When Nicole called on Wednesday morning to say I'd probably need to come in, I called Family, including Cousin Nancy Jinks and I proceeded to talk to Mother . She was very very thin, and was restless, but I could n't be sure she was hearing me. I hugged her and kissed her on her lips --and she kissed me back! She was hearing and feeling our loving presence. We all were able to say goodbye and tell her how much we love her.
Besides me, there was Sox and Penny, Kaitlin and Kristain and Haylee, Laura, Jesse and Allen Wayne, Nancy, Ron, Judy, Teresa, Elizabeth, Donna, and her friends/caregivers who took exceptionnally good care of her for the past four years. Her great great grandchildren hugged her and kissed her goodbye.
There is a song "I Can Only Imagine" that expresses my feelings. I'm imagining the reunion in Heaven when her beloved Stuart, her son Arthur, granddaughter Melissa, and siblings Burrus, Grayce, Noah, Joyce, Kade, and all the other family members who have gone before, gathered to welcome her.
Granpa Pratt told me when I was a little girl that death is just a part of life-- you simply go into another room where all those who've passed on welcome you Home. Don't know if this is good theology, but but I like it.

granann 11:59 (noon) Friday Feb 10, 2012