My Nana ...

My grandmother Bessie would have been 106 today.  She was very special to me and I was special to her.  My grandfather and she were true soul mates ... if there are such things.  I was born shortly after he died and I was a bright spot in those sad days.  My name was suppose to be Caroline ... my mom had it all picked out but when my grandfather James (Seamus) died right before I was born they named me after him ... and 2 years later they named my brother James ... He must have been a very special guy to have both a grandaughter and a grandson named after him.  I promised Nana before she died that if I had a boy I would name him James Beck ______ whatever the last name of the father was.  But that promise remains unfulfilled ... I am sure she would have understood.   She was an amazing woman ... very strong and very funny ... She told great stories ... and sang silly songs.  She once told me about a man who was painting her father's house and he was complaining about having to go up and down the ladder every time he had to move over to the next spot to paint ... when he was finished with the spot he was working on and started down she told him to stay where he was and she picked up the ladder with him on it and moved it over a few feet ... and when he yelled at her she just laughed.  I spent most weekends as a kid at my nana's house.  One of my favorite memories from childhood is waking up and seeing her sitting by the open window in the bedroom at dawn ... I got up and went over to her and she put me on her lap and said "listen to the birds talk to each other"... and we sat not saying a word for a long time just listening to the birds talk to each other ... my favorite silly song she sang was about the moon ... 


I googled it and found this: 

My sweetheart's the man in the moon
I'm going to marry him soon
'Twould fill me with bliss just to give him one kiss
But I know that a dozen I never would miss
I'll go up in a great big balloon
And see my sweetheart in the moon
Then behind some dark cloud, where no one is allowed,
I'll make love to the man in the moon.

Her version was:

My sweethearts the man in the moon
I'm going to marry him soon
and oh the bliss of that wonderful
a thousand and one I never would miss
I'm going up in a balloon
my sweethearts the man in the moon

I think she made it into a PG version for me and omitted making love to him behind the dark clouds ...


I think of her often ... she didn't have the easiest life ... she worked hard ... and went without ... lost the love of her life at an early age ... but I have never in my life met anyone who loved their partner in life as much as she loved my grandfather and from what she told me the feeling was mutual ... to me that makes her the luckiest person that ever lived ... love like that doesn't happen very often ...