All Saints Day and starting Thankful30

Happy November!  With Thanksgiving later this month, November is an excellent time to remember all we have to be thankful for.  I know I often get caught up in what's wrong and don't focus enough on what's right or in today's case, who was right.

November 1 is All Saint's Day.  Being raised Lutheran, we commemorated this day on the first Sunday in November.  Everyone who had passed away in the previous year was recognized.

To me it is a day to reflect on those who were special in my life.  Last fall, I journaled about 5 important people from my life.  I reread the entry last night and remembered so many wonderful things about these special people - some family and some friends.  One person I have not written about much is my maternal grandmother - Maw Maw.

My Aunt Margie, Maw Maw, My Mother and Me in the late 1970's

I didn't appreciate Maw Maw that much growing up.  Honestly, I took her for granted.  My dad's mother was my fun grandmother.  Mother's mother was a homemaker who started caring for others when she was about 10 years old and her own mother died leaving her several siblings to raise.   Maw Maw was a great cook; she made the best biscuits.  She took care of me often on the weekends when I loved to stay at their house.  I just never understood her as a child or young adult.  She didn't know much about the modern world.  People always think it is funny that she would not let me drink Cheerwine because she thought it was alcohol.  (Cheerwine is a popular cherry soda in our area.)

The thing I most could not understand about my grandmother was how she worried so much.  It didn't seem to me as a child there was anything to worry about.  Boy, those were the days! I'm a worrier now and now I understand her so much better.  I also have come to appreciate a lot of her wisdom.  She may not have ever watched television (really, she refused to look at it) or have traveled but she certainly knew a lot about people, growing things, quilting and kindness.

So today I'm grateful that I had Maw Maw in my life until I was 22.  I'm thankful she loved me.