Do you have a relative you love and admire? Tell us a little about their life and why you love them so much.

I remember when I was little I would go to stay at my grandmothers. she loved to go to yard-sales and she would always pick me up lots of books. When I got to her house I could read for a whole week if I wanted to!!! At home I was always so busy, so this was a real treat. She also took us berry-picking, fishing, visiting her older friends and so many other fun things. It was a great bright spot in my life to visit her!!

-- Melissa (melissa_n65@hotmail.com), November 30, 2001

Answers

I would have to say my GreatGrandmother Vera. She is gone now, but she gave me so much. I remember setting at her feet and her teaching me how to sew.She always made us kids homemade playdough,fingerpaints and chalk. There were always cookies in the cookie jar and fresh lemonade in the icebox. We were close all through my life. The day before she passed she asked me to come over. She gave me a huge trunk full of pictures. We spent the whole day going through all of them and putting names and places and dates on all of them.This I found fasinating, because she had gotton to the point that she could not remember the smallest thing. That evening she asked me to fix her hair,she said she wanted to look pretty for the Lord. I just laughed as I fixed her hair and told her she had plenty of time left. She died in her sleep that night with a smile on her face. I have never felt so happy for anyone before. I morned her loss but she can finially walk without a walker and remember and do all the things she couldn't do . I asked her once what was the first thing she was going to do when she got to heaven, she said sew me a quilt out of clouds and sunsets. Every time I watch a sunset or sunrise I know she kept her promise and all the angles in heaven are warm under their sky quilts.There will never be another like her and I hope when she looks down on me she is proud and happy with my life.God Bless

-- Micheale from SE Kansas (mbfrye@totelcsi.net), November 30, 2001.

My Grandpa Floyd was my favorite and now even though I shouldn't have a favorite, I think Melinda is, I'm more like grandpa was as far as homestead ways. Melinda is so funny, you havne't seen that here on the forum, but she can be hilarious she inherited that from me. All four of my girls are survivors, and I really respect that.

-- Cindy (S.E.IN) (atilrthehony@countrylife.net), November 30, 2001.

I know this is off, but I found it funny that you had a good grandpa named Floyd, because my greatgrandmas husband was a wonderful man also --Greatgrandpa Floyd. Vera and Floyd. Interesting!

-- Micheale from SE Kansas (mbfrye@totelcsi.net), November 30, 2001.

My mother. I would get aggravated with her at times but I know she loved me and how I loved her. She has been gone over 20 years now and I still miss her. It is comforting to know she is in heaven and I hope looking down on me. We bought our first "farm" a few months before she died. She never got to see it because she lived 900 miles away. Shortly after she died, I felt her presence there very strongly. One morning we got up and the coffee pot was even on! She loved her coffee! I only felt it a few days, then she was gone.

-- Barb in Ky. (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), November 30, 2001.

ANOTHER TEAR-JERKER THREAD! My Mom is a remarkable woman. My Dad had a severe skin disease called Hydradinitis Superativa (it started at the base of his spine when he was 19). It required constant cleaning. Since children read this, I won't go into any details, but it was horrible. Even doctors were shocked/repulsed by the severity of it. She spent hours every week making special clothing for him so he could go into public. She took care of his condition for 40 years. He died in February from a pulmonary embolism that was a direct result of the open sores he had. Even though Dad's condition was very painful he worked hard and provided for our family well. He never let it stop him. I miss him terribly, even though our relationship was not always good. He was a ROCK for everyone who knew him. Mom was his rock.

-- Jo (mamamia2kids@msn.com), November 30, 2001.

My Great Aunt Cleo! She was a corker for sure. She was one tough cookie, never let anyone take advantage of her, but was so kind and generous at the same time. I remember once, she was having her house exterminated. Her house was raised, and their was a crawlspace underneath, so the exterminator was on his belly, under her house spraying. Aunt Cleo didn't know this man, and wasn't sure he was doing a good enough job, so she crawled under there herself so she could keep an eye on him! (She was in her 70's at the time!)

She was always one to offer encouraging words when they were needed, and to tell a joke or a childhood memory. I especially loved hearing about her travelling as a child in a covered wagon! (She was born in 1903.) She was married to my Uncle Punt for 30+ years when he passed away, and she never had a bad word to say about the man. Then after about 10 years, she remarried a man she had met at church. He started trying to boss her around, and she put the stop to that REAL QUICK! She kicked him to the curb after only a few months. She told me there was no way she was going to spend another day with a man who treated her so disrespectfully, because she was too good for that! What wonderful self-esteem!

She passed away 8 years ago, after suffering through Alzheimer's. What a terrible thing to see such a bright, funny lady go through. There have been so many times when I've found myself in a tight spot, and I'll think to myself, "Now, what would Aunt Cleo do?" Works every time! She was amazing. She'll always be remembered and loved.

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), November 30, 2001.

Hello Melissa, My grandmother Caroline Claxton was probably one of the most memorable people in my life. She was a country woman, spent her whole live living in rural South Carolina, (just west of Myrtle Beach). She taught me how to fish, how to identify animal tracks, how to cook out of doors, how to forage for berries, and probably is partially responsible for my back-to-nature life style today. The old woman dipped snuff and I use to always make fun of her about it. One day when I was about 10 years old she grabbed hold of me and sat on top of me. She forced my mouth open and poured a half of can of TubeRose in my mouth! I cried, pucked, got up and washed my mouth out with the pitcher pump.....but, I never made fun of her again! She was one of those old women that could recite the bible nearly end to end, but, could not read a lick! She went to church every Sunday and just memorized what the preacher was talking about at each sermon. She gardened, made her own soap, butchered her own meat, and worked as a share cropper in the summer time. Her and I worked side by side in the tobacco fields together. Her skin was leathery from the hot sun! We would go home and our hands would be a green as the tobacco leaves that we picked. She showed me how to get the green off our hands by washing with a cut up tomato. It worked everytime! It would rain occasionally in the summer and we would sit it out in the old tobacco barn and talk about the wonders of nature. She knew a lot and taught me much. Now, everytime I hear rain hitting on a tin roof I think of her. My roof on my new house is made of tin for that very reason.

When she died I was devestated. I had not known that she had died right away, since I was in the service and family was unable to get a message to me. When I finally found out that she had died. I did not believe it was true. I drove all night to get to her house. when a got there it was empty. I went to the neighbors and they told me where she had been buried. I went there and it was true. She had been buried right next to one of my cousins that had died at birth. I cried and cried! I missed her then and I still miss her after nearly twenty-five years.

Twenty months ago when my wife gave birth to our beautiful little daughter we decided as a tribute to my grandmother that we would name our new daughter.....Caroline. There is even a family resemblence of my grandmother in her.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), November 30, 2001.

I admire all of my grandfathers, but I really admire my dad's dad. He had a very hard life, a very hard mother, and I think he spent his entire adulthood trying to fix the damage that had been done to him spiritually and mentally. He wasn't a very warm man, nor was he openly loving towards his family, but I knew he cared. When my sister and I would visit him, he'd cook his horrible meals for us, put us to work and hardly speak to us with out preaching about something or another. I love and admire him because he never gave up. He did prison time. He was in the war and remembered when they bombed Nagasaki. That's the only time I saw him express any emotion at all. But he never crawled under a rock, nor gave in to being a criminal for the rest of his life. He educated himself. He took great pains to quit drinking and smoking. He led an almost self- sufficient lifestyle. His spirit was indomitable.

-- Dawn (olsoncln@ecenet.com), November 30, 2001.