Almost two years ago, I get a call from my Godmother telling me to come and get whatever I want from her house...she was selling. I tell her that I will be down one weekend, and she informs me to come now. I go on a Friday and to be honest it is creepy getting things from somebody's house while they are still living. She had already put a pile of things aside for me that she wanted me to have. In that pile was Pinkie and Blue Boy statues, a white cat and her prized ceramic Christmas tree...the reason behind all these items is because she made them all the year I was born. I was born 7 days before her 50th birthday. I often kidded her that at 40 if anything happened to my parents, would she still raise me...at 90 years old she answered yes. You see Nanny Sizemore is someone who has always been there...I have never even thought about her not being around. So imagine my surprise when in early October my cousin called to tell me that they were on their way to Chapel Hill and Nanny Sizemore had been airlifted there. I am thinking stroke or heart attack....she had fell out of the attic and hit her head on a table. 91 years old and still climbing in an attic to get down her winter clothes. She died the next day. A wave of emotions washed over me the next few days...mostly anger for her climbing in the attic in the first place. But it was just her style to go out of this world doing things for herself. I couldn't stay mad long because she was finally getting to see her love once again after 23 years. Nanny Sizemore was 4'10" and every bit of 90 lbs. She was a kid at heart (never having any of her own) and loved by all...she was the historian of our family and kind of the glue that kept us all connected. One of 14 children who saw lots of things happen in her life, but always looked to God to guide her. I miss her, but I will see her again. I put up her little ceramic tree this year minus the phone call to her to tell her it is up and just as beautiful as the day she made it in 1971. I treat it with care, and put everything around it that she gave me....the ceramic Mr & Mrs Clause, the 3 vintage elves and the little presents that she wrapped years ago to go around the bottom.
Me and Nanny Sizemore Christmas of 1971...I was 10 months old and she was 50 that year. Notice how she looks the same at 91...she never changed.
This is Nanny Sizemore on her 91st birthday in February 2012.
Her little ceramic tree is up again this year. Mr. & Mrs. Clause, the 3 vintage elves and the little boxes that she wrapped years ago. I pray it doesn't get broke...it has made it 41 years so far. Praying it makes it many more years.
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