My Grandmother's Mother

As a little girl, I had the great privilege of meeting an amazing woman.

~ Mrs. Nellie Lynch ~  

She was very old, and she had the most wrinkly face I'd ever seen.  I didn't think she was ugly though ~ because her beauty came from within.  She smiled and joked almost the whole visit ~ she even played my brother's little blue guitar and made up a song...  

This amazing woman was my great-grandmother.

Up until recently, I'd really known very little about her.  I knew she was born and raised in Kentucky.  She earned a degree in teaching from Berea College, and eventually taught in a one-room school house.  Her mode of transportation to and from college was a donkey which she rode through mountain passes.  I also knew she had many children, with the eldest being my grandma ~ Norma.

This past week, my grandma's sister ~ Juanita ~ said she'd unearthed a documentary made in 1940 of my grandma and her family, when my grandma was just 7 yrs old... and we could watch it online.

Click here to watch the documentary.

Nellie in the kitchen, preparing corn pone

My grandma, eating breakfast...

 Getting dressed for school...

 Walking to the one-room schoolhouse... 

Reading aloud in class...  You can even hear her voice as she reads... and I can tell it's my grandma, even though in 1940 it was just the voice of a little girl.

Throughout the first half of the video, you probably noticed the handmade wooden signs: 

SMILE   

above the front door... on the outside and inside.  

We Are THANKFUL  

 above a doorway that leads to the kitchen.  

GOD BLESS OUR HOME  

above the bedroom window.

In honor of my great-grandma Nellie, 

I painted a sign which will eventually hang above my own front door...

I think it's a fitting way to honor a woman I'd call great... 

for reasons other than being my grandmother's mother.

"Some people, no matter how old they get, 

never lose their beauty...

 they merely move it 

from their faces into their hearts."

~ Martin Buxbaum