Dear Grandchildren-A Few Things I Want You to Know

Dear Grandchildren

Now that there are seven of you (and hopefully more to come in future years) I wanted to tell you a few things about the family you have been blessed with (or cursed with) depending on how you look at things. Most of you are still young, ages 7 and under, but our Abby is 14. There are things you should know….

There are Missing Faces at Our Table

There are so many things I want you to know about your relatives that you will never get to meet. Why? Because even though you will never know them, they are a part of you. Their blood runs in your veins. Some of you carry their names. Occasionally when I look at you I see bits and pieces of them in your eyes and your smiles. Through you, they live on.

Your Great-grandmother

Dear Grandchildren, how my mother would have loved to meet you! She was a reading teacher at an elementary school for 17 years and she adored children; especially her grandchildren. She didn’t get to meet any of you because she died when your parents were young. Justin was 3, Rachel was 5 and Nick was 7. Their memories of her are foggy but she was crazy about them. They were the only thing that brought smiles to her face in her last days.

Shirley Layne DeMumbrum Bell loved her parents and was exceptionally close to her father, Layne DeMumbrum. When she was 16 she eloped with my dad, John Fulton Bell, who was 26 and just out of the Air-Force. Momma’s family and Daddy’s family attended the same small county church and when the news reached them, they were not happy. Then I arrived almost exactly one year later and finally, things between the two families improved.

Shirley, my mom, was 17 and married with a child. They lived in a house with no running water or bathroom. My mom walked from her house across the road to her in-laws house to carry buckets of water back home. One night she and dad came home from work (they opened a dry cleaning business) to find that the chickens had gotten in the house and roosted on the table. Mom was not happy. Decades later they joked about it, but not then.

John Fulton Bell

First your great-grandfather had a dry cleaning business and also a roller skating rink. Neither worked out but Daddy found something that did work. He sold Ford tractors and farm equipment and he loved the thrill of making deals. He loved it so much that he worked practically around the clock. Which was great for business but hard on his marriage and his children.

He was so good at sales that Ford sent him and mom to Switzerland, California, Aculpulco and Hawaii. Mom loved the traveling. Dad not so much. Then the tractor market went bust and Dad began selling anything that he could make a buck. He sold boats, motors, motorcycles, dirt bikes, hay rakes, log skitters…..you name it, he sold it. In addition to selling things he also ran several farms and had beef cattle. He was always on the move or on the phone, trying to make a deal. I loved him and he loved us very much. I just wish I could have spent more time with him.

There are so many more people I want to tell you about, but I’ll stop for now. What I want you to remember, though, is that you were loved not only by your parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins…..but also by people you never even knew.

The legacy and love they left for you is as much a part of you as the color of your eyes. When God made you he took all the best parts of your mom and dad and added in a sprinkle of past generations. God formed you in the palm of his hand, sprinkled some stardust on you and sent you to earth to your mom and dad with instructions to take good care of you because you are special. How special? Of millions of other babies he made he picked out you to be a part of our family.

I’ll write you another letter next week, my loves.

Nana

PS. It’s okay to leave a comment and let me know what you want to share with your grandchildren.