WRITER'S CHALLENGE #1

Today I am joining a new event created by Lori at Family Trees May Contain Nuts, which is a Writer's Challenge. Our topic for this first challenge is 'What is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you'. There is a growing list of ladies joining this event, so if you want to sign up, visit Lori for the details. The list is getting longer, and you can already read some of the very special posts that have been written, including Lori's, which just brought tears to my eyes.

Below you will see a picture of a young Blondie sitting on her little Toyota GT with two little boys. It is in the driveway of the home I now live in and have lived in for the past 24 years. You see, at the time this picture was taken, I did not live there and I had no clue that I would, or that these two precious little boys would soon become my sons.

I was dating my future husband who had been widowed the year before after ten years of marriage and was left with his two beautiful sons as a single dad. His wife had died after a three year battle with breast cancer. Jeffrey and Kevin were just two and three years old at that time. She was only thirty years old and although I never met her, I learned she was a spunky little Irish girl that loved life, motherhood and family. And what a wonderful family she had...

After dating my husband for awhile, we became engaged. Of course it was a delicate situation with Patty's family, especially her parents. My husband was extremely close to them. I hadn't met them yet and not only was their son~in~law getting married to this little blonde, this little blonde would become the mother of their grandchildren...

I met my husband's inlaws about 4 months before the wedding. They are a very tight knit, warm and loving 100% Irish family. Considering they had just lost their oldest daughter, it took time for our relationship to grow. But just to show you what a class act his mither in law was, she loaned me her pearls to wear on my wedding day...
I don't think I am showing off the pearls here. I think I am hiking up my stockings!

Our relationship grew as I struggled to become a wife and mother. I went from being a single working girl to a married mother of two little rambunctious boys overnight. And I continued to work full time. I think I earned my mother~ in~ law's respect with my juggling and hopefully, common sense. We began to visit longer when she watched the boys for us and family parties became easier and really a lot of fun. I nearly broke down and cried when she introduced me to some friends as her daughter~in~law. That was really the brass ring for me, and it seemed to open up a million doors. No longer did I feel the need to prove myself to her. We moved on to a closer, more meaningful relationship.

My husband and I had two daughters together over the next 3 years, Emily and Abigail. Nana had a special affinity with Emily, her first granddaughter, saying they were both 'old souls'. I think she was right. Emily pretty much gave everyone trouble except Nana, and not only did they play with toys together that Nana kept at her home, they had long conversations!! When we had Abigail, we gave her my mother in laws name as her middle one.







As I became a mother to her grandsons, , she became more like a mother to me. I never once, not once, had a moment where I had the need to complain about her, be put off, or feel anything but great love for her. I think she was proud of the way I raised the boys. She would ask me what to get them for birthdays and Christmas, what their baseball schedules were, how they were doing in school. She always treated me like I had been there mother since day one.








My mother in law passed a way a few years ago. She was bedridden for awhile. I would go over and sit by her bed and we'd talk until she got tired and then I would read her favorite magazine, Bon Appetite, while she dozed. Near the end I would gently lift her fragile body up into a sitting position next to me on the bed to help her circulation. She abhorred pain medication. In her last hours I repeated over and over how much I loved her and thanked her for all the wonderfully nice ways she had always been to me. This tiny little lady, one whom I was so afraid of twenty years ago, someone I wanted so badly to please and gain the respect of, I now held her hand, laid my head on her chest and cried. I never had to try to gain these things from her. Her heart had plenty of room in it for me.


xoxo
Jane

I was told by my good friend at Aunt Amelia's Attic, that a wonderful young girl named Nancy is sitting by the bedside of her husband who has been suffering from a terrible infection for over a month. This poor man can not even speak. Please visit Nancy at Cold Springs Studio with some words of encouragement and a few prayers. And visit my 'Aunt'. She is one fantastic lady! Thank you friends...