Missing our Virginia

In 1968, my Dad took a job in Franklin, met a very nice girl, and was invited to go to dinner in The Terrace Garden apartments.  It was a very good year.  The job became his career, the girl his bride, and that dinner was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  Mom and Dad and Ginni and Lane have been a perfectly matched set of friends since before forever in the lives of their children...at least the two legged human ones.  Wiggins Grafton was the first pup to discover this foursome was a pile of fun, and for the human kids, Wiggins has legendary status.

Lane and Louie bonded over Steelers football and their wives delicious dinners!  Susan and Ginni began their bond as fellow teachers, and they soon realized they were two peas in a pod!  They showered each other in times of joy and comforted one another in times of sorrow.  For Lanie, Adrienne, and I, the girls were the planners and organizers of everything... from yard sales, to tea parties, snazzy costumes to fit the season, and lots of laughter.

The daily sound of normal has been the sound of the phone ringing and a sweet voice asking is "Your Mother there?".  Then my reply, "It's Aunt Ginni" as I hand the phone over knowing that the daily chatter of what's happening in our lives will commence.  This rather ordinary event has suddenly become the silence of a phone that seems to forgotten how to ring the same old tune.  Our lives have changed, and we sit here wishing for the cheery smile and grin.  We're missing the little details that we've come to think as ordinary but have really been that extraordinary presence that we think of as our dear Virginia.

If you only knew her in the classroom as a student, you might have missed her fun loving self.  But after all, she had to deal with the pre-pubescent hoard that thinks they are always right.  She taught lots of lessons to her students and expected our very best work because she knew we could do it if we really really tried!  But the best lesson of all she taught was how to be a true friend!  With kindness and love, attention to detail and fun, she was a feisty trooper in all she went through, and she always
seemed to have a place to go and people to see!

Our Ginni was a treasure hunter. Shopping at Gimbals, Kauffman's, Hornes, Macy's, and Nordstrom were all most definitely her style.  But so were the shopping jaunts to Goodwill, Sally Ann's, and the local humane society shop... She could find treasures in lots of locations, and most definitely knew where to look!  My mother sometimes wonders where I get the shopping genes, when I tell her my aunts, Aunt Ginni is most definitely to be included on the list as a grand champion shopper.  Mom and Ginni's shopping adventures have been a regular part of life, and when I think about it have included items like Atari and iPads, baby dolls and clothing for the grand baby, and most definitely Steeler gear!   You ought to be impressed by her shopping talents when you know that on the way home from the beach, she was able to convince my dad to stop at a sale just for fun!  But by far the treasure she loved best was her family and friends and one very special grand boy named Fox!  She spent her best treasures on them, her time and her talents.

Oh yes, we are missing our Virginia!  Her laughter, and smiles, her charm, and her wit!  The tone of her voice and the roll of her eyes!  The details she noticed and the things that she did...from hospital sales, to trips to Paree or perhaps more likely the sea, from card club and lunch bunches, to providing decor.  You name it, she did it, and helped quite a bunch from little bitty kiddies to the very very old.  She was compassionate, well organized, and had talents galore!

Miss Virginia Wolfe was a blessing to her Mom and Dad, and like me, she was the favorite, which made them very glad.  As high school sweethearts, her groom was blessed to have known her in her teenage days.  She was a stylish sixties bride!  Mrs. Grafton was familiar in Central's grand halls, her friends on the faculty knew that her goal was to help Central students to be all they could be!  To Lanie and Adrienne, their mom was a wonder!  And to my family, you can see, she was adopted family!  We love her and miss her!  There are thousands of lives she touched, and cherished  memories made along the way!

There are a zillion things missing in our lives that all came bundled in the blessing we knew as Ginni.  We are thankful to have been a special part of her life.  We were blessed to have been a special part of hers.

I have mentioned little elements that made Ginni "Ginni"!  She was a darling daughter, a fabulous friend, a wonderful wife, a marvelous Mother, a creative colleague, an amazing aunt, a terrific teacher, and a truly grand Grandmother!  We are definitely missing our Virginia!  But as much as our lives have been flipped upside down by her passing, and as sad as we are at missing her, there is one part of her life that helps to gladden our hearts and make us know that just as always before she had a place to go and people to see, when she left this world, she left us to go on to the most amazing place and to be with Jesus our savior.   Her faith was rock solid.  This Christmas, our choir will be singing about surrendering your life to God our creator, our redeemer, our ever present help, and the one who loves each of us so much that the miracle in the manger happened.  Ginni was a part of our choir, and had sung with us as we began learning that song, and it occurred to me that all of the everything that was a part of her life wasn't as important as her relationship with Jesus.  He is our hope and our strength as we are weak.  We are missing our Virginia, but we are trusting our Lord that He has welcomed her home.

The element of quality (written in May of 2014)

Today, I found myself sorting out markers.  As a classroom teacher, it's one of those periodic activities that you do at the beginning or the end of the school year with the old batch of markers.  This year, I decided to do it with two different batches of marking pens.  One was purchased within the last two years and is probably the best known art supply company for kids, while the other batch is an odd collection of markers that was purchased by myself and a sweet friend who added a batch to mine that she had had in storage.  (And is probably memorable to most people as those sweet scented markers that you got to use in art class!) I'm not sure how old the oldest markers are in that batch but I believe that the vast majority of the markers are 15 years old at minimum.    Some of these might actually might be from my years at Grove City College!

They have been actively used so with several groups of children, but also have had several periods of general storage.  So it was very interesting to note the difference between the different brands of markers.  The older batch has been used intermittently within my classroom for heavy duty coloring projects, while the new group was a set that had regular use for brief periods of my day, not necessarily heavy usage, but regular enough.  I started the project, because I had noticed that the newer batch seemed to have a significant number of markers that were quite frankly out of ink.  So I started sorting.  I threw out about 80% of the markers.  (I wasn't surprised, because over the years, I have found that brand is not particularly well filled with ink, and even with the lids in place they dry out quite fast.  In fact, I have probably been given an equal number of markers from this company, but they never last longer than a year or two even if they are stored properly.

So I started the second batch thinking that I probably would find some that were out of ink.  After all they are quite old, and have been used with regular frequency, so it might surprise you to find that  I found exactly one.  Seriously!  I noticed some variations on ink color that might be age related discoloration but all of the rest did work, and the ones with odd shades were still filled with ink, and the color difference just adds a little variety.  It was the quality that made a difference.

Summertime...sunshine, seashore, and sales

Summer has flown by, and this post is being prompted by me wanting to share a link on Facebook as well as realizing that it's been too long since I've updated my blog!  Summer 2013 is going to be remembered for the joy of a sunshiny day in the midst of a lot of rainy days!  It's also going to be remembered for the bliss of the beach... walking in the sand, swimming in the waves, and laughter and fun with my family.  And that last thing...sales, I admit I love going to a good yard sale!  This year, we hosted one!  The fun part of that was finding household treasures to pass along to someone else who wanted or needed them!  Today, I got to go to several!  I find that finding treasures at a yard sale are just like finding them along the shoreline.  You have to look for them, and what you might find as being lovely and absolutely the right thing for you might just be an old dust catcher that might break to someone else.  Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder!

Time flies!!!

They say time flies...and perhaps this blog is proof! (Or maybe it's just proof that I don't often take the time to write!) In either case, I guess I need to get blogging! This year is speeding by without me taking the time to reflect on what's new in my life. This year, I've been blessed with some darling new little friends in a classroom of my own, and that has been a great blessing. This year, I've been blessed to spend time with with a couple of nieces and a lovely little nephew a little more often than I had before, and that has been a delight! Maybe someday, they'll read this note, and know that I really loved being with them to celebrate all life's little and big moments. This past year, I got a new little blessing/bundle of joy to celebrate and enjoy so I have another little voice to call me Aunt... (I love being an AUNT!) There's another little smushie that will smile when he reads this someday, and think teasingly...but you're my cousin...but I know in his heart...he knows and loves his Aunt! (And I know that for sure!)
2012 seems to be flying with lots of exciting additions to celebrate in the coming months. (I'm looking forward to the celebrations, and hoping for a few surprises too!) And the thought of hoping brings me back to the concept of this blog... being a trousseau of sorts. I hope that you have had lots of delightful things to celebrate and enjoy in the last year, and I hope that 2012 brings you and me some delightful surprises to celebrate!

Schooldays!

I am spending a fabulous day learning about Blogs and these nifty things called digital binders! Think of a computer "Trapper Keeper!" Just love this concept!!! PS. Check out http://www.lorislatestlinks.com/ if you are a teacher...

The Season of Waiting...

This is it... the season of advent ... waiting... as children, we remember the anticipation of the pure bliss of Christmas morning, and as adults we look forward to the sight of happy family members and friends being delighted by the things that we have planned for them to enjoy. What a wonderful celebration Christmas is!

Hmmm...

I haven't written in a while, and I've just spent about four minutes thinking of a title... and this one seems to fit best. September has flown by, and we're already a third of the way through October. The past two days have been gloriously beautiful... both for sunshine and the fabulous shades of autumn. I think we're at the peek of leaves this week. My birthday was yesterday... which I describe as the day that the last of summer's roses bloom, and the first flakes of winter may fall... so this was definitely a beautiful day to enjoy, because we got one last warm taste of summer rather than a nip of winter's chill.
Right now, I feel like it's a waiting day. The next season's adventures will soon be upon us, and things will be filled with zillions of projects. But it's not now...and not yet! So I'm just enjoying the wait!