My Nana is the Best

I love my Nana. She has been everything to me. When I needed help she was there. When I was younger and wanted to play, learn something, or just watch what she was doing, she was there. And not only just for me, even though she has never forgotten about me or mom, she always been the woman to be there for anyone who needed her. I love going to my Nanas house whenever I get the chance. Not everyone can say they have an awesome Nana or grandparent that they have learned to love, be friends with, and explore life with but I am grateful I’m able to say that I have.

No she may not be the best person in the world but in reality who really is? In my world she’s pretty high on the list. She’s not perfect, she has had her moments, as does everyone. Growing up with her I have learned so much. She’s the person who actually taught me how to cook, ever since I was tall enough to stand on a stool, reach the counter top and know what shes telling me to do; we've been cooking all different sorts of things. Week nights when dad wasn't home to cook dinner for me I would climb through the kitchen and see what I could find that looked yummy and I would cook it. Sometimes I would have to call my Nana up and ask her how to do something or what an ingredient is, she always answered.

She taught me a love for the outdoors as well. There was not a single sunny, summer day her and I were outside tending to her 7 flower gardens and 2 vegetable gardens. Feeding the birds and squirrels, watching butterflies play in the sky, looking at the clouds and see what pictures they made. Those days are what made my childhood almost.

I remember a hot summer day and I grabbed my little, floral printed garden glove and plastic garden tools, as Nana grabber her gardening stuff, to go do some weeding. I had started my very own carrot plant in her veggie garden across the dirt road of the trailer park. I went to go look at it and there was a carrot growing, I was so excited. I pulled it out of the ground and ran over to Nana screaming “I got one I got one Nana look!!” she laughed and told me I should have left it in the ground to let it grow more, it wasn't any bigger than an inch long, maybe three centimeters wide, but I had one. I ran to the garden hose and washed the dirt off to try it. It didn't taste like a carrot.. My face looked priceless she said. She had a good chuckle for about five minutes while I was scraping the carrot bits off my tongue.

I remember the smell of her freshly washed sheets she would hang on the cloths line outside to dry. I thought it was a maze, so I would run through them laughing. As Nana would try and chase me and catch me eventually she did I would laugh and laugh. I recall her teaching me how to blow a bubble with bubble gum, we both knelt at the coffee table in the living room she described how to do I don’t know how many friggen times, but after hours of practicing I finally got it. then there was the times it was time to go to sleep but I was too wide awake, and with the lamp attached to the headboard of her bed we would do shadow puppets with our hands, or she would tell me stories of her past growing up with all her siblings.

Yet as the years progressed there was less playing but more just good ol’ bonding time. We would sit and talk for hours at night, school, friends, and family, whatever came to mind. She’d paint my nails some times. We’d go shopping which is always interesting with the two of us because we both hate shopping; if my Mom Nana and I go shopping together, everyone better look out, it’s just indescribable, Nana and I raised chickens once, she loves chickens and I wanted some so she got some. She and I would take care of them she never picked them up but I did, I'd walk over to her so she could pet it and every time I did, the chicken would shit on me, it never seemed to fail. I quickly learned to hold the other end of the chicken just a little bit away from my clothes so the poop would land on the ground.

I love my Nana and for all the good memories of her and I throughout my childhood, teen years and soon to be adult hood, I wouldn't ask for any of it to be different, and for her to stay the amazing woman that she is today.