Day # 10 - I Remember, With Grateful Thanks, My Grandmother . . .

 Remembering Vera Claire McDonald Shipp  
My Grandmother
 November 10th 1892 - April 25th 1986

My Bridesmaid's Luncheon at the Swan Coach House in Atlanta - June 7th, 1975
Front - Me (Center) - Jan Fuller (Left)
Back - Granny (Left)  My Mother (Right) 

Afternoon Bridal Tea at Mary Jean Davis's House
Left to Right - Granny, Me,  Mother

At Our Wedding - June 7th, 1975 - Druid Hills Methodist Church - Atlanta, GA
Granny and her Brother, My Great Uncle Mid (Middleton McDonald)

 

 All Ready to Go - Dinner Party Given for Us 

Granny (right)  Terry (center) Me (left) 

One of our last pictures of Granny - Taken in Feb of 1986 before her death in late April -
Taken Outside the Skilled Nursing Facility at DeKalb (then General Hospital) Medical Center
Left to Right - My Niece, Rebecca, in my Sister's Lap,  Dorothy (back center) and Granny
She was a beautiful woman up until the very last breath she took.

I spent much of my spare time today remembering, with grateful thanks to God for her life and for my acceptance into her family.  She never treated me any differently than her other Grandchildren even though I was the adopted daughter of BOTH of her daughters,  first her older daughter, Mary Claire, and then her youngest child, Ethel, after Mary Claire died just before I turned nine years old.  

She and Granddaddy were the only ones in my adopted family who never changed "roles" . . . I came to know and love them as a baby, and that never changed. They were, simply, "MY" Grandparents.  Granny and I had a very special relationship, maybe partly because I "HAD" lost my mother and my father at a very young age. Whatever the case,  I loved her dearly, and not a day goes by that I don't think about her and those beautiful blue eyes and hair that turned silver when she was just 20 years old. Those eyes, even after they grew old and tired and dim and could no longer see to sew which she dearly loved to do,  were still full of twinkle and mischief.  She was a woman who knew exactly how to find trouble and get into it when she wanted to!!!!  I loved spending time with her.  

She would have been 122 years old today - - - yes, I know - - - not possible, but today IS the 122nd anniversary of her birth, and I am thankful beyond description for every day I had with her and for every day she lived, and for the way she lives on through each of us still.  

Happy Birthday, Granny - we love you and we miss you every day . . . it's as if the last 27 years since you left us don't even exist.

In the words of the hymn, O God, Our Help in Ages Past" 

(Isaac Watts - Public Domain) 

"A thousand ages in Thy sight are like an evening gone.
They fly forgotten as the night before the rising sun." 

For All The Saints . . .

For All The Saints . . . Alleluia!!

Today is "All Saints Day", and I am reminded of all of those in my own life who have lived and loved and gone on to their eternal rest.  I have a long and extensive history with loss beginning almost at the moment I was born, and yet, when I consider the whole that is my life, I know beyond any shadow of a doubt, that I have been, and continue to be, blessed beyond measure!  I couldn't, if I had to, choose to eliminate any of my experiences, because they have made me who I am.  

I begin my 30 days of expressions of my thankfulness by acknowledging the roles that various people have held in my life as well as those who are still in my life today.  I will move beyond the remembrances tomorrow, but for today,  it is well to remember and be especially thankful!

These special Saints in my life include my biological parents - Dorothy Berenice Davis and Julius Vincent Pierotti.  I never knew either of them personally, but I know ABOUT them, thanks to my Mother's Sister and her family, and my mother's brother and his family, as well as my cousins from my mother's siblings. What an amazing blessing it is to have ongoing relationships with Bill and Tina and Pat and Mary Ellen and Russell and Georgianne and some of their spouses and children and grandchildren.  

Had I been accepted as part of the family from the beginning,  there would have been eleven of us first cousins . . . can you even imagine holiday get-togethers?!  Thanks so much to ALL of you who have included me in your lives as adults, and for all you have taught me about my mother! 

The circle includes also my adopted families - Mary Claire and Tom Sanders and Ethel and Baron Roberts - my adopted sister, Kathryn Brannan, my adoptive Grandparents, Vera Claire and Clanton Shipp, Sr. and Georgia Roberts and Rosalie Sanders and all their children - my aunts and uncles in my two adoptive families.  They were very accepting of my adopted status and contributed much

throughout their lives and mine. 

I remember and am most grateful for the wonderful woman who was, at first, my Caseworker through the Adoption Agency and later my friend - we always had lunch together at the downtown Atlanta Rich's Magnolia Tea Room, nearest my birthday.  She gave me my first doll, which I promptly named Tucker after her.  She came to my "rescue" as a teenager plagued with self-doubt about myself and my "background" after a high school teacher called adoption a "Social Ill". 

I remember her at my wedding, and I remember taking our newborn daughter, Dorothy, to the retirement home she was living in. I wanted Dorothy and Miss Tucker to meet!  

My adopted Granny's birthday was November 10th, and she was one of 

my best friends throughout my life, and she always made me feel loved (yes, even when she was angry with me) as we lived out our lives together, and as both of her daughters were my adoptive mothers.  She died in 1986 just before she would turn 95 and just before I turned 40.  Not many people are blessed with a loving Grandmother for so long into their adult lives.  She would be 122 this year, and I still miss her every day.  I will have lots more to say about her on her day.  

These are just a few of those who have preceded me in death - - - the Saints in my life - - - for whom I am eternally grateful and of whom my memories and love never cease to flow.  

It is an awesome thing to sit and remember that even a small change in the events of my life would have resulted in my never coming to the place in life where I now reside . . . my husband, my daughter,  my best friends, my church, my Hilltop Home, my choices of pets over the years, my music education, my love of photography . . . so many things.  Every time I am tempted to think "Oh Woe is Me",  I stop and remember that "ME" is anything but "woeful".   When I 

remember, I am thankful all over again.  

I think that's enough for right now . . . I'll be back tomorrow . . . 

"For all the saints, who from their labors rest, who Thee, by faith before the world confessed. Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed. Alleluia"