Happy Birthday Grandma Jeanne*!*

On October 9, 1919, my Grandma Jeanne was born. She married my Grandaddy and spent almost 2 years waiting for him to get liberated from his prison camp in Germany during WWII. He came home and they started their family: my Dad, Uncle David, and Aunt Cindy. A steady line of Grandchildren were born ( 8 ), two of which were named after Grandma Jeanne. Since then, out of the seven Great-Grandchildren, two more were named for her. Wow-I just summed up 88 years...

I'm pretty certain that my creativity came from Grandma Jeanne ~ and I'm thankful for it. She was an amazing artist; paint, pencil, charcoal, pastels, you name it , she could do it. She always encouraged creativity in us too ~ always having art supplies for us to use: paper, markers, colored pencils, glue, small scraps of fabric, etc. at her special desk. She even punched the lenses out of her old glasses for us to wear while we were creating ~ so much fun... She made each one of us feel like were extra special...when she was the special one.

On of my favorite stories: I was in Kindergarten and we were supposed to dress like cowboys (for some reason)... we had an Indian costume so that would have to do. I was so upset that I was different than everybody else all day... by the end of the day, I wanted to go see Grandma Jeanne. We pulled up in her driveway and she rushed out to see me with open arms and started gushing about how wonderful I looked (to this day I have no idea how she knew that I had had such a crummy day). She gushed and gushed and ran inside to grab her Polaroid so she could take my picture (that picture is around-I wish I could get my hand on it!). I was feeling much better after all of the praise but of course I had to tell her of my horrible day. She looked me in the eye and said, "Out of all the kids at school today, who do you think everyone will remember tomorrow?". I will never forget that.

I was 12 when she died and there have been many a moment that I wish she was around for. I am lucky though. I have an Aunt (who is also an incredible artist and one of the most creative people I know!)who keeps her memory (and her special ways) alive for me every day..Thanks Aunt Cindy...you are soooo special to me*!*

Grandma played piano and would mark letters on the keys (had a dream about that last night as a matter of fact) to try to help us learn too...don't know if any of us picked it up though. Aunt Cindy told me recently that she would play this often, "Rhapsody in Blue"...I wish I remembered that.

Happy Birthday Grandma Jeanne...I miss you*!*