This post will be very long and is to help me(for my annual family photo book) beable to help preserve some memories from my dad/me about my beloved Nanny who passed away on January 12,2010.
We each have that special someone in our family that is set apart from the rest, and Nanny was that person for me. I told Trey that I just don’t feel like she is really gone. Even though there is an empty spot in her chair/bed, she still feels near. When I weap, it's tears of selfishness. I want August and Kennedy to of gotten to love her like I did. The dress up parties, acting like Nanny was Crystal from Dynasty and Papawa was Blake, climbing up in the tree awaiting kids that were going to toilet paper their house after a football game, traveling together- the long route was likely taken so you could see flowers or the country side, her advice and non judgemental nature to help when you were in distress to know that everything was going to be o.k, telling you to make sure you did your push ups so that you didn't have the grandma arm wave, knowing if you went somewhere that you would know everyone in the room by the time it was all over,spending weeks during the summer playing outside, going to her classroom, attending school at Temple Jr. college, going to the lake and playing on the barge with the assurance from everyone that jaws was not in the water, and so much more.
I have learned a lot with the planning process of a funeral, both Pappa and dad were glad that Melanie and I were able to help make the arrangements. It was good because Nanny had already shared most of her wishes for her funeral:songs were picked out, she wanted to try to keep the service as short as possible(although she told dad she wanted him to speak at it), she had told me what she wanted to wear, and she was firm that she didn’t really want any family members being pall bearers because she wanted them to sit and be with their wives(especially Mel and me cause she knows how upset we can get).
It wouldn’t be a Glover story without something a little weird happening. When we showed up to the funeral home for our meeting they didn’t have any record of Nanny being there or an appointment because her body was not sent to them. Nanny and Papaw had prepaid their funeral expenses, so the funeral home knew she must have been sent “somewhere else”. With the reassurance from the funeral director that they would “Find her” we all got a little chuckle that Nanny was missing. Sure enough, Hospice had called the wrong people Tuesday night to pick her up which made her be located at another place. When sitting in the funeral directors room making arrangements Pappa said he would never forget the look on her face as she left this world. Automatically assuming the worse, I asked "what look was that?" He said " You know, that cute little smile that she had." Then he told Mel, " there is noone that miss her more than me!"
The funeral day ended up being beautiful, compared to the day before where there was tons of rain. Although, rain is suppose to be God's best blessing on a wedding or a funeral. The church was full and the influence my Nanny had on many was heard. Here are the songs that were played: Just a Closer Walk with Thee, Amazing Grace, Because He Lives, and I'll Fly Away. Below is what dad shared and the poem that I read.
This is what Dad said at the funeral.
Through my Mother’s eyes 83 years of history have passed and countless acts of love were shared. She was born June 17, 1926 in Liberty, New York and passed this last Tuesday, January 12, 2010.
My mother loved viewing nature throughout her life. The genesis of this love was in her youth as she grew up in the Catskill Mountain resort town of Liberty. Her father, being a part time hunting and fishing guide, would take clients from New York City on all of the back roads in the area to hunt and fish. On Sundays, he and my grandmother would load up the car with four daughters and go commune with nature. They would stop along some back road trout stream and enjoy a late lunch and take in the vistas the area provided. It was on one such outing that they returned home to find out that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. In my youth I remember her enjoyment of seeing the Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes along the side of the road as we traveled from Academy to Gonzales to my Dad’s parents house. As an adult, my family remembers Nanny wanting to take the back roads from Western New York to Eastern New York because the scenery was so much better on the back roads. My daughters remember Nanny sending pictures of her sitting in a field of flowers with a notation on the back about how beautiful they were and what kind of flowers were there. Even since Christmas, my dad’s Christmas present to my mom was to keep the bird feeders outside full so all her birds could have something to eat.
Through my Mother’s eyes every child had the capability to learn. My mom’s interest in learning and teaching was influenced by a case of Rheumatic Fever she had as a young teen. Being bedridden for a month or two, reading became a large part of her life. The help she received while being bedridden allowed her to return to school and maintain an A average throughout her high school years. After becoming a mother of three, with two special needs kids, she and another mother (through the Cerebral Palsy Foundation) ran a special needs class at Reagan Elementary in Temple. After going through the hardest decision in her life to let my sister and brother attend Austin State School for the mentally handicapped, my mother went back to school and got an undergraduate degree at Mary Hardin Baylor College and a Graduate Degree at Southwest Texas State. She taught first grade for 22 years where she worked hard, late into the evenings, to make sure that every student got the chance to learn. After retiring from her first grade job she went to work at Mary Harden Baylor as a supervisor of student teachers who where practicing teaching in the various schools in the area. Even after retiring from these jobs she continued teaching. She was influential in helping my oldest grandson learn to read and write by having my grandson read one sports article a day and then write about it. Even this last month she taught my daughter that if you want to keep your three boys from shouting in the house, tell them “use your inner voice, you can use your loud voice outside”.
My dad and mom loved each other very much as witnessed by their 63 years of marriage. They did have different ways of showing it. My Dad is a meat and potato type of guy in that if he told you he loved you once there really isn’t a need to keep telling you. If he changed his mind, he would let you know at that time.
After her graduation, in 1944 from Liberty High School, Mom became a telephone operator, as the resort town of Liberty, in the Borsht belt of the Catskill Mountains, needed more operators in the summer months. In 1945, she and three of her girlfriends transferred their operator jobs to the West Coast, as there was a need for more operators as the troops returned from the Pacific. Or as my Mom put it, “The fleet was coming in”. It was there, on New Years Eve (1945), that she met a sailor on a blind date. They were married 6 months later in Sequin, Texas on June 19, 1946. For sixty-three years Mom would take compliments from Dad where she could find them: When my parents were asked what they liked about each other when they met my mom stated, “he was cute”; my dad thought a while and stated, “She was available”.
When my dad was probed for a strong physical characteristic of Mom’s, he stated she had a good set of legs. Mom took the compliment one way and then dad would explain that she could walk forever. It was probably due to Lynn walking up and down steep Lake Street where she lived as a youth.
Probing dad to comment on Mom’s success of keeping her checkbook, Dad responded,
“She has come a long way from her sheltered beginnings.” Mom would look at me and smile and shake her head back and forth. We knew that it was as good as it would get from Dad.
In Dad’s defense he praised Mom’s cooking and singing and her intuitive compassion for others.
My mother was a master conversationalist. My dad was always amazed how she could carry on a conversation with a perfect stranger in an airplane. By the time they got off of the plane, best wishes were traded with an occasional phone number added on. Many of you have been recipients of my Mom’s talents with her kind words, caring eyes, and smiling face.
Although a New Yorker by birth, and proud of her state, my Mom fell in love with Texas and more specifically the Academy-Little River community. From our arrival in 1954, many strong friendships have been created. We have fond memories of trips to Bastrop State Park, Inks Lake State Park and Garner State Park. Many a summer weekend were spent on the barge at Lake Belton. Road trips were taken east, west, south, north and across oceans. What wonderful memories.
Mom developed into a super fan of the Bumblebees as the years have passed and truly enjoyed attending the games and rooting for the players. It is my understanding that Pat Reeves and her became quite a colorful duo throughout the Bumblebees sports year.
I am overwhelmed with the caring this community has shown my parents, and especially my Mom, this past year or two. I have known about the strong bonds between many of you and my Dad but only in the last few years have I come to realize the importance of my mother to many of you. Both you and we have been blessed and my family continues to ask for your blessing in the years to come.
In closing, family meant the world to my mom. Much more time could be spent talking about my Mom’s relationships with her four sisters and their gambling escapades (low stakes of course) or how much they loved to have fun. Or of Mom’s influence on my two children and my four grandchildren. Sleepovers, climbing into trees, short trips, long trips, and one on one conversation could be discussed. We also could include all the other branches of our genealogical tree. Mom truly loved you all and wished you happiness.
From the time my mother asked me to speak on this occasion the phrase “ the love between a mother and a son” kept popping into my head and I continued to ask myself what and where can I find the love between my mother and me. I have come to the conclusion that love came through my mother’s eyes each and every time we talked. It is now stored safely in my soul. Thank you
I read the following:
Nanny lives on in all of us. She lives on in my papawa's heart, dad's generosity, and the great-grandchildren that she leaves behind. This poem reminds us all of Nanny's spirit.
Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.
When dad was going through some of her stuff he came across the biography that Nanny had started to write about herself. Here it is:
I was born June 17, 1926 in Maimonides Hospital, Liberty, N.Y. to Olive and Victor Le Roy. Marilyn lived all her “growing up” life with her parents and Paternal Grandparents at 83 Lake Street. Grandma & Grandpa LeRoy lived upstairs and Mother & Daddy downstairs. As our family grew with 3 more daughters, Margie, Barbara and much later Vicki we shared some of the upstairs bedrooms & 2 bedrooms on the 3rd floor. There was only one bathroom in the whole house.
For four years I was the only child. Mother said I was speaking in sentences at one, but that I was almost two when I stopped scooting & got up and walked right away.
I was baptized at the Liberty Methodist Episcopal Church and later joined the church. I have many happy memories of Sunday School, MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) and Junior & Senior Choir at church.
I loved school, kindergarten through high school. I sang in the Glee Club and Mixed Chorus. I also was in the Senior Play. I graduated from high school in 1944. We had to have our graduation at mid-term because many of the boys were drafted into the service when they were 18 years old. We were not able to take a Senior Trip because of the war. Many things were rationed at that time, from gasoline to tobacco and several groceries.
Liberty was a “resort” town and the Telephone Company needed many extra operators during the summers. Many of us trained during school and then worked summers in Liberty. By the fall of 1944 several of us worked in Geneva, N.Y. for the telephone company since the Geneva Naval Air Base was located there. We received “vouchers” for our meals and necessary expenses. The Telephone Company also arranged our lodging
By June of 1945, we went back home and worked in Liberty. In the fall of 1945 the Telephone Company arranged our transportation and lodging to Berkley, California. The Pacific Fleet was coming in and they needed operators. On New Year’s Eve, I met John Glover, the cutest sailor you ever saw. It was “love at first sight”! John was stationed at Oakland Naval Air Base. We became engaged before he was discharged and he went back home to Gonzales, Texas and I returned to Liberty.
We got married June 19th, 1946. We were both 20 years old. John attended Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos where our daughter Pamela Lee was born in 1947. Three years later in LaGrange, Texas, our paternal twin boys William Bruce Glover and Robert Victor Glover were born. We moved back to Liberty, N.Y. for a few years since two of our children, Pam and Bob, had been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. There was a C.P. center in the Liberty area.
In 1954 we moved back to the Temple, Texas area due to the Crippled Children’s Center there. We moved to Academy where John coached and I took Pam and Bob to the center for therapy. Bill, our other son, started school at Academy, before he was 6 years old, due to his September birthday. I was a den mother for the local Cub Scout troop. The hardest thing we ever did was taking Pam, at the age of 12, to the Austin State School. Her therapist and doctors recommended this. There were no public school classes for her then.
I took night classes at Temple Junior College and three years later, when Bob joined Pam at Austin, I attend Temple Jr. College full time. After TJC, I attend Mary Hardin Baylor where I graduated with a degree in Elementary Education. I had the joy of teaching first grade at Academy and then Temple for 22 years. Ron Winsman was our “Coach” at Scott Elementary. What a wonderful staff we had, led by Calvin Whatley, and then Pam Johnson.
I feel very blessed. I have so many friends. God is good. As a member of the Little River Methodist Church I have taught a pre-school and a high school Sunday school class. I also sang in the choir and even was a choir leader for a while. I was president of the Methodist Women for a while and have a pin to prove it. The leash I now wear in my nose has prevented me from being more actively involved recently.
There were hard times but so many good times. After our son Bill graduated from UT, he and his wife blessed us with our 2 beautiful granddaughters, Melanie and Kimberly. We traveled a lot and took our granddaughters on many trips to the coast and other places. Our son Bill Glover is now married to Robin Ritter. They share many interests, environmental science, teaching, reading, hiking and biking. Bill has been a wonderful son to us. He has helped us so much as we have gotten older. He is always there for us when we need him. He is a great son, husband, father and grandfather.
Our granddaughters are still our treasurers. Melanie is married to Jared Clayton and has three precious boys. Tyler Poehl, Landry and Joey Clayton. Kimberly is married to Trey Dotson and has an adorable little girl, Kennedy Lynn Dodson; Named after me!
I also have five nephews and nieces who live in New Jersey who are dear to me;
Donna and Artie Lynch and children Ryan & Kyle, Victor and Eileen Badgely, Georgie and Nancy Badgely with their daughter Grace, Margie and Andrew Hutnik and their children Olivia & Lucas and Timmy and Robin Badgely and their triplets, Lillie, Sarah and Hannah.
My brother–in-law, George Badgely, is father and grandfather to all. Barbara, my sister, was their mother and has passed as has my other sister Marjorie. My sister Vickie, whose husband Donny Underwood recently passed, had two children, Patti and John. Patti is married to Jamie Conn and has three children, Callie, Trevor and Jared. John and Candace Underwood have five children, Dustin, Seth, Jennie, Katelin, and Brooke.
My sister-in-law, Alice Adcock and her husband Tommy, had three children, Tommy Ann, Marvin, and Shannah. Tommy Ann and Donald Fortune had four children, Sherry, Cassie, Tristan and Tricia. Sherry and Paul Bartosh has two children, Cassie and Kraig Hickey has two children, Kristin and Joey Parks has three children, and Tricia and Pete Mora has two children. Shannah and Randy Schultz has two children and Marvin and Cindy Adcock has two children.
Till we meet again....I love you Nanny!
