a few days with my grandma

This post is WAY overdue. Back in June, I had an unusual opportunity with work to travel to West Lafayette, Indiana for a few days. Not only do I pretty much never have a reason to travel for work, it was crazy that this was the place I ended up going, because though most of my extended family is scattered around the country, the largest group of them lives in and around this small Indiana town. The work I was doing took me to Purdue University, where my grandparents and most of my aunts and uncles went to college, and where my parents met and fell in love. Sometime I should post their story on here because it is awesome. My grandfather actually worked in the music department at Purdue for many years and from the stories I hear was a bit of a legend there. I haven’t been there for a visit in a long time, so my trip for work ended up having a lot of sentimentality to it. Not the least of which included two special evenings with this amazing lady, my grandmother.

We call her Meemo, thanks to my oldest cousin Matt’s small-child creative pronunciation skills. She is extraordinary and she made me feel like an honored guest. I don’t get to spend much time in her company, as we live so far away, but she is a faithful phone-communicator and calls each of her ten grandchildren in rotation so I get to hear from her regularly. And she always calls on your birthday to sing to you. Since I really can’t describe her, you’ll just have to take my word that she is a unique lady. She’s full of amazing stories, which she tells in a way that no one else can. I soaked up every word she said during our two brief evenings together.
Her house is something else altogether. Just walking in the door brought back a flood of childhood memories. There are things in her house I didn’t know I remembered until I saw them, and then I had the strong sensation of being a small kid again. I asked if I could take some pictures of her house and she obliged. I’m so thankful that I have some more concrete documentation now of the little things that surround her every day, since my memory just can’t hold it all. I wish I knew the stories attached to each little item. I do know they all have one of their own.

This cabinet has a drawer for each grandchild. It’s been labeled with my name since before I can remember, and it was a place she used to put fun little items in for us to discover when we came to visit. We could also add things from our visits to the drawer that were meaningful to us. My drawer has sat untouched for years. I still have a dollar in there, a pink dinosaur, Wikki Stix (does anyone remember those?!), Go Fish cards, some stamps, and a Benihanas menu.

I love these vignettes in each room – little collections of things with important photos tucked in any available space.

The dollhouse in the bottom two photos of this image is a special thing for me and all my cousins. I spent countless hours on the floor in this room playing with it. It’s pretty incredible.

This is taken from my mother’s old room. The blue shag carpet was recently replaced. (Bummer!) But I did notice that these dressers are the same style as the one a favorite blogger of mine recently purchased and had updated to go in her daughter’s nursery. Mom, you were ahead of your time. Your stuff is “vintage chic” now. 🙂

The chairs on the left were a project my parents did together in college. They bought a book on reupholstery and DIY’d one of them. The other one was done professionally to match. I have their do-it-yourself spirit, for sure. The other chair, which I think is just beautiful, is part of a set that my grandma received from her Aunt Pearl.

So after a delicious dinner that my cousin Matt made for the three of us, Meemo decided she wanted to give me a special souvenir from this visit. She told me she thought I might like to have a book, and to go start looking around for a book to take home with me. (Just to give you a picture, I bet she has 10,000 books in her house. I was a little overwhelmed at picking one out!) But then she told me not to take any off two certain shelves because those are her good books that she uses all the time. 🙂 Then she had a new idea. She told me to go over to this cabinet and open the door, and just inside on the ledge, I’d find some little figurines. Most of these she has collected from various trips she’s taken, but there was one (not pictured in this image) that she had made, and she wanted me to have it.

She had taken a woodcarving class when she was thirteen years old and still had this swan that she made during the class. I can’t tell you what it means to me to have something she made with her own hands. It’s precious.


I found the perfect place for it on my mantle. It wasn’t until a few minutes ago when I was picking out this image that I realized I have a little family history collection growing there. The mason jar on the left belonged to my great grandma, the little one in the middle was one of David’s Grandma Opal’s canning jars, and now I have Meemo’s swan. Makes me happy!