Sew Loved

There were things about my Nana that I never realized had such an impact on me until long after she had passed away and her answering machine had been disconnected so I could no longer call her house just to hear her voice.  When I was in high school, my Nana was about 78.  It was then that I realized she really was the kindest person I had ever known.  She always smiled.  She always cared.  She always had friends.  She always nurtured them.  She never knew I had Celiac disease – none of us did until I was 39 – but for some reason she almost never fed me anything with gluten.  I never remember having a stomach ache at her house.  I always felt calm.  I always felt strong.  She had the gift of understanding human beings and loving them for all of their frailties.

On a less metaphysical level, I remember that my Nana never, ever wore pants – never jeans, never slacks, never capris.  She always wore a dress or a skirt – even if she was working in the garden or doing her cute little calisthenics – the ones she learned from watching the “Jack LaLanne Show.” In high school, I was a competitive cyclist and would ride my bike 25 miles to her house on Saturdays just to talk to her and play Scrabble or help with her flowers.  I remember once after arriving in a bit of a sweat that she wanted me to meet her neighbor’s grandson.  Ugh, this was not going to be good.  I remember saying, “Nana, look at me, I’m wearing skin-tight cycling shorts that make me look like a sausage.” [Mind you, a very hot look for Lance Armstrong, but not a great look on a high school girl with a few extra pounds to lose.]  “Oh, honey, don’t be silly, you look adorable.  Here, slip this skirt on over your shorts and it’ll be perfect.”  Good grief, I thought.  But honestly, it didn’t look all that bad.

My Nana and Grampy When They Were First Married

I guess you can see where I’m going with this story too.  I don’t think we ever really realize the impact people have on our lives until much later on.  Believe me, I always knew my grandmother was the coolest lady I knew and I always felt that if I became one-tenth the person she was, I’d be lucky – and so would the people around me.  But, it took me a while to see the connection between her teaching me to sew a dress that gave me strength, her exercising in a dress, and her brilliant idea to slip on a little skirt to cover up my cycling shorts to the evolution of RunningPretty.  Yes, I had an ‘incident’ that made RunningPretty a bit more urgent in need (See my last post), but I believe there are so many factors that play into who we become as adults and how we view the world.  I still see my Nana in my dreams and when I awake, I feel better.  My hope is that I can work harder every day to make my children happy, my friends feel loved and a few less fortunate feel more fortunate.  RunningPretty is simply the embodiment of who we are and what we strive to be – whether it gets to market or not – it’s still a success in my book.

-C