an essay about the nana

I have a great-grandmother. We call her 'Nana'. Of course, this all sounds very ordinary and boring, but Nana is one of the furthest people from boring that I know. Some might go so far as to say that Nana is odd, but I have a word that I reserve for describing Nana. It is eccentric. Nana is the very embodiment of eccentricity...

Nana lives alone in a house on a hill with a cat named Penny. Penny has not had rabies shots in approximately 5 or 6 years, but Nana still insists that we play with her. Nana is a 'fling caution to the wind' kind of person.

When I was younger and would visit Nana with my grandfather, she would say, "Now, Ashlyn, I want to show you my horse." And of course, with all the naivete of a 7 year old, I would follow Nana to her garage where she would point to her Dodge Colt and say, "Yep, there she is." And then she would collapse into hysterical giggles. I was always quite disappointed. She played this joke on me numerous times before I figured out that there would never be a horse in that garage. Nana has a sense of humor.

One of my most vivid memories of Nana occurred several Christmases ago. Nana had just arrived at my grandparents' house. I was waiting for Nana to find me. She has this uncanny ability to find people. Somewhat like a heat-seeking missile. Dad came up to me and said, "Ashlyn, go find Nana and tell her hello. I know you think she is a little bit...um..." and at this moment, my father was cut off in mid-sentence by the Nana herself.

"Oh, Ashlyn, dear-- Merry Christmas!" Nana shouted. She kissed both of my cheeks, and shoved a small container into my hands. I looked down at it. It was a can of microwaveable Chef Boyardee Ravioli. Mission accomplished, Nana swept away leaving my father and me just staring at each other in her wake. My uncle put his hand on my shoulder and said quietly, "Don't feel bad, Ash, when I was your age, she gave me a square dancing kit." Nana is full of surprises.

Last Thanksgiving, Nana (ever the epitome of tact and discretion) visited with family for a full 10 minutes, and then seated herself in a recliner and began to sing (loudly and off-key)-- "I want to go home. I want to go ho-ho-home." Nana also wears bright red lipstick-- you know-- that oil-based kind that stays on you after the wearer kisses you. You will scrub and scrub at it, but you will take the top layer of your skin off before you remove that lipstick. And Nana kisses people on both cheeks. Nana is a bold and outspoken person.

Nana is a skilled oil painter. I don't know if she does it anymore, but we still have some of her pieces: a mountain lake, a pine bough. She also writes poetry. And plays the guitar. Nana is a person of varied talents.

Nana is like a bold colored quilt. When you look too closely, the individual colors seem to clash annoyingly, but when you took at the whole thing, the unique colors work together to create a beautiful quilt.

So yes, Nana has her eccentricities, but that it what has endeared her to me...