Grandma

Yesterday was my Grandma's 84th birthday (my dad's mom). Today, dad, mom and I went down to Florence to visit her and grandpa in the Vet home. It was a really nice visit - she liked her presents and was happy the people there had thrown her a party the day before, too. And the GREAT news - she is beginning to be able to walk again! She hasn't done it for us, yet, but with her physical therapy session I guess she's walked up to nearly 200 steps at a time with a walker a few times now. She still can't go to the bathroom on her own, but she seems stronger and happier.

I brought a few of her photo albums I am the steward of and she looked at them with me and told me who some of the people in the pictures were. I now understand her side of the family much better than I did before, and so does my dad, and I think she kind of liked seeing the pictures and talking about them - so that was very nice. Last week I brought her album from when she was in the Navy Waves at the end of WWII for a girl at work to see because she is maybe going to do Navy ROTC in college. I guess my family is a Navy family - grandma's dad Ernie joined the Navy as soon as he was of age right after WWI to help out his family because his mom Nettie had been widowed with 12 kids and they were really struggling. Grandma and Grandpa both were in the Navy in WWII, and then so was their eldest son Jack, my uncle, and my brother Jeff (in the reserves for both of those). Both of her grandmas remarried as did her mom so there lots of name changes to keep track of. But I was excited to realize that her Grandma Snurr is the lady I know in the genealogy papers as Nettie Jones - born in 1878 here in El Paso County, Colorado! - my great-great grandmom and first in the family to be born in Colorado. I also learned more of the family is buried here in town than I knew - even Nettie's parents, my great-great-great grandparents, are buried here in town! So one of these days I want to go find their graves - I looked up the lots for both sides of my family online and made a list. I also saw a picture of the house grandma grew up in here in town where she was born. I want to go up to that house on Del Norte St. and see what is there today - I don't think the same house will be there but I'm not sure. My dad told me a story about going to visit his step-great grandpa Ned Lenari (husband of Bessie Maud Hanks, who married Milton Ooley, my grandma's grandfather on her mother's side). (spelling?) who lived in an apartment above the original Guiseppe's restaurant when he was in high school. I got to see pictures of Bessie and Ned, too, and even pictures of another set of my great-great-great grandparents John Ooley and Hester Ann Light, the grandparents of Viola, grandma's mom. But I know at this point I lost everyone and no one would really care about this except my own family anyway. :)