Nani

     

Today was a rough day, we buried my grandmother, Angie Robles. She died on June 23rd at 7:00am. 

     My father's parents died when I was eight years old, we have lived without them for almost 17 years, it's funny how fast time flies. Now thboth grandparents on my mom's side are deceased, it feels very strange, knowing that I have no more living grandparents. I know they are in heaven but my grandparents on both sides played a huge role in my life, so I must say that a part of me is a little bit empty. at 

     My grandmother was a sweet, sweet lady. I only knew her through my perspective growing up, but hearing about her through other's perspectives taught me a few things. 

     1. Relationships: Relationships are crucial to our existence. I had no idea that she had such strong, positive relationships with basically, everyone. Everyone felt as if they had a piece of her with them, that must be exhausting to do but I think I figured out how she did it. She embraced everyone, always, always gave compliments, and never hesitated to offer words of godly advice. She wasn't fake, but I believe she tried to see the positive in everyone. Prime example, I was texting my best friend today and was telling her how much it meant to me that she came to the funeral. She responded, "I loved her. She always hugged me and smiled at me." Keep in mind, she didn't see her that often. I then texted back, "She always, always asked about you, it never failed." In that moment it hit me, being genuine with someone doesn't have to be a draining experience. To be transparent, growing up as a pastor's kid, sometimes you don't want to have to talk to people, you kind of just want to be in and out. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but she was genuine in every single interaction she had with people, and that is definitely one thing I can work on. 

     2. Gentleness: I shared today, my grandmother only yelled at me once. Granted, she didn't deal with all of my childhood drama growing up, but in the majority of my interactions with her, she was extremely gentle. Gentleness is something that I associate with being a strong woman of God, something I have yet to learn, or I should say am learning. When 3 people say something about you, it's a fact. I can't tell you how many times I was told that my Nani was a gentle, gentle lady. I am aggressive, need to work on being more assertive, but I need to try gentleness. 

     3. Loyalty: Nani was loyal, primarily to her savior, but I want to speak on one person in particular. Nani had the same hairdresser for 44 years. Please realize, I don't mean that a person shouldn't switch hairdressers, but what I am saying is that Nani knew what she liked, and she made sure she made hairdresser feel special. When you do someone's hair for 44 years on a weekly basis, you do life with them. Yolanda shared with us that Nani had an impact on her son, so much so that when he was little he would say, "Please call Mama Angie and have her pray for me." Man, that's serious. Yolanda became apart of our family. She did Nani's hair for 44 years and she even did her hair for her funeral. I want more relationships like that, and I want loyalty to be a growing character quality of mine.

I will be sharing and uploading more later but in this moment, I am feeling very reminiscent. Nani, I love you.