Growing up, I was fortunate enough to have a close-knit extended family. My mother had a large family, and many of them lived relatively close to us. We went to her parents’ house every Sunday after church for Sunday lunch, seeing various aunts, uncles, and cousins there on some weeks.
But most of all, there was Nanny. Nanny was my mom’s aunt, her father’s sister. This made her, I believe, my great-aunt. When my mom went back to work after I was born, I went to Nanny’s house instead of going to daycare. Nanny was 71 when I was born, and if you think taking care of an infant would be took much for a lady of that age, well, you’d be wrong in this case.
You see, Nanny loved children. She wasn’t fortunate enough to be able to have children of her own, so she missed out on having a large family. She and her husband were able to adopt, but a single child was a smaller family than Nanny really wanted. She was more than willing to take care of a child, so things worked out. Plus of course, my parents compensated her as well, although I don’t know the details of that arrangement.
Nanny was the ideal housewife. She knew how to knit, cook, bake, preserve foods by canning, quilt, and everything else under the sun. Or at least, that’s what it felt like to a tiny child in the 80’s! In fact, Nanny is where I learned a lot of the skills that I want to share with you.
Nanny lived through the Great Depression, and these skills were some of the things she and her family relied on to survive. I won’t go so far as to say we need to do the same, but hopefully sharing her knowledge with a wider audience will prove helpful.
Nanny passed away over 10 years ago, at the ripe old age of 102. I know she would be thrilled to meet all of you, and would absolutely consider you all her honorary children too. So learn something new and make Nanny proud.