But oh, how we have lived in those years, too, with weddings and births and lots of joy.
Honey is wonderful with Thomas, and my niece Clare. As they get old enough to walk and talk, I can only imagine the shenanigans they'll pull together.
One of my earliest memories involving Honey is being in the backseat with my mom driving, Gentry next to me, and someone pulled in front of us or something aggressive, and my mom had to brake hard, and Gentry cheerfully yelled out "Frog Face!" Ha, she may not be politically correct, but Honey sure is funny, occasionally calling bad drivers out there "frog face."
It's not the only funny phrase she has taught us, recently she and I were walking at the farm and she said something about someone "oh, he goes through women like he goes through shoes." Nice. Thank you for that honest info.
And the donkey song.... If you've been around Honey much, you've heard the donkey song. I love that all my friends know it. Her hee-haw whistle is incomparable.
Her one-uppers. If you tell Honey a story, she'll have something twice as cool to follow it, and whether or not it's accurate, she does not care and will not admit.
She and my dad got a long so well - both quite similar, with their positive, upbeat natures, their great sense of humor and adventure. They were work hard, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, don't every have self-pity or much self-doubt, type people. They are the types you want to be more like.
I miss my dad every day, more than I probably even imagined I would in the first few months he was gone. It's comforting to know how much Honey misses him too, and loved him as her own even though he was an "in law."
My grandmother doesn't do favorites, and she doesn't do "in-laws." It is one of her very best qualities and very rare, I think. I hope to emulate it myself. I think she saw it in her dad, and has carried it on to the next generation.
I always tease Honey, wanting her to say I'm her favorite, though she has never acted as if I am, not for a second. "Yes, you're my favorite oldest granddaughter," she always says. Growing up, I never once thought she loved my dad any less than she loved my mom, and same with my aunt. It was not the same on my dads side, and though I don't mean to sound mean, my paternal grandmother made it very obvious which child was "hers" and which was the "in-law." It's not a becoming quality. It did not build anyone up or strengthen that side of the family. Not for a hot second.
I joke that my grandmother, Honey, rambles and talks too much about weird things and never ever listens (even Drew admits, you ask Honey a question, and while you're answering, she's moved on to a completely different topic) but she is such an asset to our family, such a character building, encouraging, lights-up-the-room grandmother.
I was very, very concerned when Amy and Gentry were dating and G would just leave Amy alone with Honey. What is he doing!?!! I would think to myself.
Honey would be off on a tangent and Gentry just left Angel Amy there, unassisted, to fend for herself.
My attitude was all wrong. Anyone who gets time with Honey should be thankful. What a hoot! What a ham! She is hilarious and you're never...bored. You also never forget a story she tells because you're going to hear it two, three, maybe six more times.
And, if she's not yours, at the end of the conversation, who knows, you might walk away thankful for your grandmother. Your sweet, quiet, always appropriate grandmother. Me, I know nothing of those things! And, people tell me we are like "chip and chirp."
I should be so lucky.
I could go for hours telling you stories of Honey's resilience, how her faith in the Lord runs deep, and that her house certainly built upon a rock, not sand. I could tell you how the winds have blown around her, and how she has stood strong, unyielding. I could tell you of her devotion to her husband, but there is just too much there for me to unravel that thread today. I could tell you how she buried a grandchild and never once made it about her pain or her heartache, but instead modeled moving forward for us, taking one day at a time, missing Wesley but continuing to live.
Honey is incredibly hardworking, as I've mentioned. She still works as a real estate broker, and takes continuing education to keep her license active, and she never complains that money does not grow on trees and that it doesn't hurt for her to continue working. But then again, I never hear her complain about anything. Maybe that hasn't eaten in a few hours. "Have you ever known me to miss a meal?" is one of her favorite lines.
She recently told someone while I was listening that she is "a renegade, of sorts." This was around 11 am - it wasn't the wine talking - and honestly, I have no idea what she was talking about. But Honey doesn't care sometimes if you understand her point or not - in fact, she LOVES to say "what's your point" at the end of your story and move right on with her own agenda. What's your point?
Honey's Dad, Popa, had a pillow in his home office that said "live long enough to be a burden to your children" ... yet here we are, and she's doing it to her grown grandchildren. We are so lucky.
So c'mon friends, lift up your vodka soda, tall glass, with two limes,and let's toast to Honey! May she live to be 100 and 1, sonny gun!
