Perfect

By: Matt AKA Dad

Eva Marie Fegley, better known in our family as “Nana”, was MY grandmother. She took on many other roles in her life and was depended upon by many people over the years. She was a daughter, a sister, wife to one man, mother of 2 beautiful girls, grandmother of 4 boys, and great grandmother of 5 more boys. Nana also held several part-time and full-time jobs through her life, was an active member in her church, served on a local council, and was willing to help a community member at the drop of a hat.

Nana was never an overly affectionate woman. She was not adverse to a hug, but she wasn’t the type to cover you with kisses and it was rare to hear the words “I love you”. However, most of my favorite memories include Nana. Anytime we went to visit Nana and Pop, I would purposefully hurry ahead so that I would be the first to enter the kitchen, where I knew she’d be waiting. You see, I wanted to receive MY special greeting. “Hello Matt! How are you?!”, with the biggest, most genuine smile to be found. Whenever our visits were over, the goodbyes were equally emphatic, with a hint of sadness that we were leaving. I still remember that she would stand on her front porch waving goodbye until we disappeared from sight every single time we left. We only lived about 20 minutes away and visited almost once a week! That didn’t matter. We were her family and she was MY grandmother. She lived for those moments with us. 

After a graduated from college, I moved away and started a family of my own. Our visits were fewer and farther between. After some time, my mom helped Nana get a cellphone. Although Nana was usually a quick study, calling her and helping her operate this strange new device took tremendous patience. We would chat occasionally and get caught up with anything new in our lives. After my grandfather passed, I pledged to call her at least once a week, to check on her and comfort her. This went on for at least a year or two, when she started declining mentally. As I reflected on these phone calls, I realized something. These phone calls were just as much for me as they were for her. I was selfishly still needing that excited greeting. I never ended a phone call with her without feeling like the most important person in the world. Nana might have been a lot of things to a lot of people, but she was MY grandmother and in that role, she was perfect. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Attack mode

By: Uncle Bernie At some point in your life, your car will break down. It’s inevitable. It happens to everyone. When it breaks down, people will be more likely to lend a helping hand if they see you behind the car pushing it rather than just standing around sticking your thumb out. This goes for every difficulty in life, whether it’s just a speed bump or a total breakdown. A lot of people immediately take their hands off the steering wheel at the first sign of discomfort or adversity. If you want your situation to improve, you need to start helping yourself first. When you’re going through a hard time and that very first feeling of procrastination, anxiety, or hopelessness hits…it’s time to go into ATTACK mode. You can’t ignore your situation or pretend like it doesn’t exist. And you can’t wait for someone else to fix it for you. Open the door, get behind the car, and start pushing. You might find that people will lend a helping hand. And you might find when you get good at push
Read more

The Untold Story

Image
By: Dad AKA Matt This is not an easy post to write simply because I wasn't sure how to approach it. My family and I created this blog to share stories from our lives that teach, uplift, and make you laugh. This narrative is one of the best stories that was almost never told.  That's right, the title is a slight misnomer. Personally, I've only heard the story  just one time.  When my grandfather  shared it, I was  flabbergasted. He revealed the story in the blink of an eye, I nearly missed it and had to ask quite a few questions to make sure I was really understanding what I heard! Years later, my brother Zack and I reminisced about why such a great story was never brought up again.  Now, as a father trying to instill my personal values unto my sons, I think I know why.  Nonetheless,the story is NOT the focal point nor the moral of this post.  It is the WHY that holds the value. and is the true takeaway. My grandfather, Pop Fegley, loved to tell us stories. And personally,
Read more

Music is life

Image
By: Matt AKA Dad -  I originally wanted to created this blog to leave fatherly advice to my 3 boys, but as I thought about it,  many of the things I want to share could also tie into education. So I decided to share these thoughts with my friends in teaching.  Reflecting on the best way to go about this, I remembered that advice is always best when told through anecdotes. This is when I reached out to my younger brother, Zack, to recall some of our favorite memories. These aren’t going to be sequentially written, instead be random thoughts on various topics. We love sharing & hearing personal stories from people's lives, so be prepared to hear some of ours and please feel free to send us yours! Music has always been an important part of my life growing up. I firmly believe that we need to foster every child’s interest in music. As parents and/or educators, we are also responsible to help grow that interest to understand and appreciate a wide variety of musical genres. My fa
Read more