Sweet memory

A few weeks ago, I decided to look through our big box of old family photos, just for fun, while I was watching a TV show with my family. That's always an entertaining activity. It's amusing to look back over all the old funny pictures and crazy hairstyles of the past, exclaim over how young we all look, and smile in fond remembrance about some of my favorite memories, depicted in a picture.

This picture falls under the latter category.

I'm not sure that I've ever noticed this picture before, but I found it that night and I love it.

It's a picture of my brother Andrew, my grandmother Violet Martin (my mom's mom) and me. I'm not sure exactly when it was taken, but my guess is that it was the summer of 1991. I would have only recently turned 4 years old and Andrew would be almost 3.

I've always loved to read and before I could read on my own, I enjoyed being read to. This is one of those moments. I'm not sure what we were reading, but I do remember that I enjoyed reading with my grandmother--or Me Maw, as we called her.

Obviously, at that age she would have to read to us. Reading aloud would often make my grandmother sleepy, so a couple of years later, when I could read on my own, I came up with a plan to keep my grandmother awake and still finish the book. We would tag team it. She would read a page, and then I would read a page, and so on. It usually worked. I still remember how proud I was of my "reading plan," especially when we pulled it off.

Me Maw went to be with the Lord suddenly on the morning of January 30, 2000, when I was only 12. Unfortunately, as you can tell from this picture, her size contributed to health problems that took her from us at too young of an age (she was only 59). But even though I didn't get to make as many memories with her as I would have liked, I still cherish the ones I do have. And this picture captures many of them perfectly. :)