Happy Birthday Nana!

Today is my sweet Nana's 95th birthday!

Bessie Lorene Chambers was born in 1910.

Can you imagine all the changes that she has seen in her lifetime? From horse to car to airplane? Wood stove to cooktop to microwave? Typewriter to computer to e-mail?

Nana was always petite, but now she is downright tiny. She is the fifth of nine children, smack in the middle of four boys! She never had a room to herself until after grandaddy died in 1992--there had always been someone to share with. Nana doesn't live by herself anymore--now she's at the Park's Edge Nursing Home. I was so lucky to have her living across the street from us in Tulsa. For me, going to grandma's when I was growing up just meant walking out the front door--sometimes I didn't even wear shoes!

Her mind isn't as sharp as it used to be. Nana was valedictorian in high school and graduated from college at the age of 19. She taught school for a year until my grandaddy, Elmer Patterson, wooed her away to be his wife. (We found their love letters from just before they were married, and man, were they feisty!) She returned to school much later to get her Masters Degree. She wrote several books; one on the history of Deaf Smith County, TX; and several women's devotional books. ( I like to think of her as a frontrunner to Beth Moore!).

A lot of people who develop dementia or alzheimer's can become mean as their disease progresses. Not Nana. She is still so sweet, and so polite. She may not know who I am, but she knows that she loves me. She is excited that I'm there to visit her. She still wants to make sure that her hair "looks alright" if you take her picture. She always asks how I'm doing, and if I have a good church. I guess even when you lose your memory, there are some things that are just so deeply ingrained in who you are that you can't forget them.

I remember as a kid that it would sometimes annoy me when Nana would quote scripture all the time. She was a walking concordance. Now, I'm envious of her knowledge, and sad that she has lost it. When I visited her in September, she wasn't speaking very coherently, but I could tell that she was telling me a story about Jesus. I tell you, the woman knew her stuff. She stood by her husband of 62 years, who was an Elder in the Church, until he died. A couple of years ago, I caught her staring dreamily at his picture. She turned to me and said "Isn't Elmer handsome?" Even then, more than half a century later, she was still in love with her sweetheart.

Although it makes me sad to think about the ways that this precious woman had deteriorated, I am so, so, so blessed to have her in my life. She is a role model to me for how to be a faithful Christian, a supportive wife, a loving grandmother, and an inspirational author. I love you, Nana!

So, I'll sign off this entry the way she has signed my birthday cards for years.

With love and admiration.