A Thousand Words Thursday

This is my 92 year old great-grandmother. We call her Bobby & she's still rockin & rollin. (Please don't tell her I posted a picture of her in her "night clothes", she'll pitch a fit!). I don't know why we call her Bobby instead of Grandma or GrandMaMaw (like on Bewitched)...but its been that way since before I came along & who am I to mess with perfection?

This woman is my rock, my true north, my heart & soul. I spent many, many a weekends with her & my great-granddaddy growing up and would say I am closer to her than my own mom.

A few years ago when we made the decision to move to Virginia, I thought it would kill her. Or she would kill me. I'd lived within a block of her since my oldest son was a year old. Because of her, my children never saw the inside of a daycare. There was no "taking advantage" going on - she INSISTED. In fact, she had a key to my house and would get there of a morning before I was even out of bed. Thats just the kind of woman she was. Is.

Since my husband had to start work before we could officially make the move, it was up to me to haul my brood across the country - from Northern California to Southern Virginia. He was set to return to make the trip with us, but Bobby wanted to go with me, so against his will, he relented. Can I just say she never shut up until we got to Nashville? Lordy but this ol' lady can talk! My grandpa always said WD40 replaced her toothpaste a looooong time ago!

So with my Suburban loaded down (Gramps outfitted me with a CB radio for the roadtrip!!), pulling a U-Haul trailer (when I'd never so much as hauled a Radio Flyer wagon), 3 sad boys, 1 unruly cat, and a then-88 year old woman, we hit the highway. We had "a long way to go and a short time to git' there" we were gonna do what my hubby thought couldn't be done without him. HA! In yo' face! Whoops, sorry.

Three days after setting foot in VA, we put Bobby back on a plane to California. She had NEVER flown in her entire life before! Can you imagine?? At 88 taking a cross country road trip and then flying home - proof you are never too old for firsts. Since then, she's become a regular. She visits for 3 weeks every year, and thats three years in a row now. No one else in my family has made the trip even once yet. So yeah, she RAWKS!