The Lazy H Climbing Club: Ginny

This week we said goodbye to Ginny, just 10 days short of her 97th birthday. Looking back through letters Ginny’s friends sent to celebrate her 80^th birthday, they describe her as “lovely”; “vibrant”; “sparkle and joy”; “elegance and grace”. A “good friend”, a “gentle lady”. “Beauty of smile and spirit”; “loving heart and ready wit”. There were also the comments like “naughty but nice”, “mischievous”, and mention of skinny dipping and the Playboy club.

All of those qualities shone through in her role as my loving grandmother. She set aside a dresser drawer at her house for us, and there we could always count on finding some new treasure -- those free stickers that arrived in the mail from Easter Seals, a flea market find, or a new card game from Glebe House where Ginny volunteered as a docent. My favorite game to play at her house was shoe store. I would take all the shoes out of her closet (and she had a lot), line them up on the stairs, and she would come to my store to try to patiently try them all on, eventually finding the perfect pair to go with her outfit. We would often go visit 99 year old Aunt Nida on the farm down the street for tea parties with a little bit of tea and a lot of cookies. I’d like to think some great wisdom was imparted during those afternoons, but mostly I remember the cookies. When bedtime rolled around, I got to sleep in her room with one of her collection of teddy bears and rather than read a book she would make up bed time stories that always featured a little girl named Kate.

Ginny was an expert seamstress, and helped my mom make many of our Halloween costumes over the years (always in matching themes for Kendall, Andrew, and I), as well as my navy polka dot 8th grade dance dress. Before I went off to college, she prepared me with cooking lessons and I learned to make the essentials-- casserole and sloppy joe's and italian wedding cake. We became good correspondents, writing letters to each other as long as she could see.

I feel very fortunate that my children got to know Ginny. Even at 96, she could play hide and seek and roughhouse with Logan, or have a pretend picnic on the floor with Amelie. She always had cookies to offer them on a little saucer, stuffed animals to play with, and lots of hugs and love. I’m comforted by the fact that I know she lived a long, good life, and was ready to go. I’d like to think that she was welcomed home by Poppy and Uncle Kent and her brother and sisters and they’re all together today at some fashionable party (which may or may not involve skinny dipping) drinking cocktails and laughing over old stories and shining down on us.