Nani: My speech from today

Good morning. For those of you who don’t know, my name is Renae Ingram and I am Angie Robles’ only granddaughter.  On behalf of my entire family, I want to sincerely thank all of you for coming and paying your respects.  I was fortunate enough to have had spent 25 years of my life with whom some of you have described as a classy, gentle, humble, creative, godly and a sweet, sweet lady. I would like to share some of my favorite memories of my Nani.

Nani could cooooook, not cook, but cooooook. From Mexican food, to Italian food, to American food, to her specialty sandwiches always on toasted Roman Meal wheat bread, her food was magic. And of course, after hugging and kissing you upon entering her house, she would always ask you, “Are you hungry?” And if your response was “no”, she would then ask you, “Are you sure?” about 3x more times, and then a plate of food would always wind up in front of you. She always had frijoles ready to make burritos. She was one of the few people to put peas in her Spanish rice, and I was one of the few people to actually not pick out the peas. One time she taught me how to make enchiladas from scratch. It was definitely a cultural experience, but in watching her, I witnessed the amount of love and care she put into all of her meals, she was very meticulous.

Her vocabulary was very specific, I always heard her using words like “dainty”, “lady-like”, “tremendous”, and more lax terms like “ya” “por favor”  and when more impatient, “Would you kindly?” or “Would you please?”

She played a huge role in raising me, especially during my early years. I can always remember her asking me to wear my hair in braids, yet alone to comb my hair. She would always say, “Mija, I would love for you to come over in a dress, or a nice little skirt.” But that wasn’t my style. She often made me dresses to wear in pre-school and kindergarten and I always felt a huge sense of pride knowing that I was wearing dresses that were handmade and that you couldn’t just buy anywhere, especially because I was always with her when she bought fabric and we went to the fabric store A LOT.

I probably spent the night as a young child for more than half of the weekends out of the year. I never got in trouble, and I could never do any wrong, ever! I was known to have laughing attacks quite often and one time in particular, after telling me to settle down multiple times, I couldn’t do it.  She then very sternly said, “Go to the back room.” My jaw dropped, almost in disbelief, she was serious, and I stormed off and sat in the back room with the door closed. I had never been yelled at by her. I was shocked, and what was only 30 minutes seemed like hours. She came in the room quietly and I immediately started to sob, uncontrollably, mostly because I was embarrassed and didn’t know Nani had it in her to be a disciplinarian.  She held me for a while and then she gave me a slice of pizza and acted like nothing had happened.

Any time I was with her, we had to take naps. No 5 year old wants to take naps. The coaxing process usually lasted about 20 minutes, and every time we got into bed, I would always remind her, “I don’t want to take a nap.” But sure enough, we would nap for about 2 hours, and every single time I got up, normally after her, she always had to say, “I thought you didn’t want to nap!” Funny thing is, any time I went over as a teenager or a young adult, I would fall asleep.

She often collected coupons from JC Penny and at the beginning of every school year, including college; she always wanted to buy me a jacket or some school clothes. It never failed and that’s one thing that always meant so much to me.

Lastly, I don’t know why she saw this acceptable, but any time my four year self would ask for coffee, she would always, ALWAYS,  give me some. She would always say, “Just don’t tell your dad.” And sure enough, whenever my dad would pick me up from their house, the first thing I always said was, “Guess what Nani gave me?” “Coffee”.  One time in particular, I can remember my dad specifically telling her to not give me coffee, but she still did, and I always ratted her out.

Nani was my last living grandparent. I was blessed enough to have had an amazing relationship with her. It’s comforting to know that so many others had the opportunity to consider her their grandmother as well, blood related or not, she took everyone into her family and I always admired her for that.

I am heartbroken that we no longer have her, but I know that she is in a way better place and since you always cornered me into speaking Spanish, quiero decir que eras el mejor ejemplo de una mujer gentil y humilde. No pudiera explicar como todo el mundo te ama. Todos extranaremos sus abrazos y sus consejos. Eres la abuela de mi vida y se que un dia nos vemos en el cielo con nuestro JesuCristo. Que descanses en paz perfecta y sepas que cumpliste tu mision aqui en la tierra, eras una guerrera y ahora mismo en este momento, eres nuestra angelita.