Me and My Nana

Everyone is the age of their heart.

~Guatamalan Proverb

My Nana lives in a lovely sunny nursing facility in Florida – yep, I still have a Nana. At 94 years old, she still rises each day and dresses as if company is expected complete with earrings, necklace, bracelets, and rings. Her blue eyes still sparkle and her skin has the soft glow of one who never sat in the sun.

I surprised her with a visit this past Thanksgiving, watching her eyes light up at the recognition of my face – if not my name. She clapped her hands and held them out like a child longing for a hug.

My Nana has, in gentle terms, lost much of her memory. In nursing home terms, she has profound senile dementia.

I keep my visits on the short side as she fatigues quickly and conversation is not always fluid and easy. On this day, however, she was cheerful and eager to talk. After pleasant conversation about the weather, the quality of the food, and the lovely view from her window, I gingerly began to explore what tidbits of her memory still remained. I told her that my birthday was two days earlier and asked, “Nana, do you know how old I turned?” After the briefest perplexity crossed her brow, she excitedly shouted, “You turned 21!!”

Cute Nana, very cute.

But, seriously, that’s what she believed and that’s what she saw in her mind – a mind that lives somewhere between 1950 and 1985. There’s something quite sweet about a grandmother that still sees me as young woman just beginning her adult life. For a fraction of a second I could share a distant past with her and laugh as if I truly were 21 again.

Now, if only my bathroom mirror could develop a little senile dementia and show me the face of 21 year old!

The rest of the visit showed me a Nana that confused me with my mother and my own grown daughter, Connor. But in the end, isn’t that what I truly am? I have a bit of my grandmother, a bit of my mother, a good dose of me, and even a smidge of my daughters. I am all the women before me just as my daughters will be. To my Nana, that is enough to know us all by face if not by name.

Yes, maybe Nana has the way of it after all...

Robin