This is a follow up post to this one about the box of old pictures my Stepmom turned into a photo album.

My grandmother’s name was Penny, but I called her Granny. That was the name she picked out for me and my sister to call her. She was tall and thin and smoked like a stack. To this day, when someone lights up around me, I think of her.

She was an odd duck, in a very good way. She had a horrible childhood. Her mother died when she was very young and her father already had his boys to help him on the farm in North Carolina, so she was passed around to various Aunts to live with. But, she had very strong opinions and this would end up getting her passed to the next relative. She only knew love from an Aunt she came to live with when she was older. I’ll have to ask my Dad, but I think it was in Washington, DC.

She had a grand old southern accent and had curious ways of saying things. Her pet name for me was Joe Blow. When I went to visit her, she would say, “Hey Joe Blow!”

My grandfather died when I was only 9 and she never remarried. I would spend weeks with her over the summer and sometimes she would come down to Georgia to spend Christmas with us. She hated flying, so she would always take the bus. I well remember taking her to the bus station to catch the Greyhound back home.

Here are two special pictures of me and my Granny.

This was taken when in 1978 when I was 5 years old. The funny thing is that this picture was taken not 2 blocks from where I currently live. It was in a house Dad bought before we moved to California.

Granddaddy, Granny, Me and my dog

This next picture is of the two of us in June of 1992. I had just graduated high school and Dad and I were painting Moms house so she could sell it.

Me and Granny

Sadly, she passed away in 1994.

When I see pictures of her I can still hear her laugh, I can still hear her clear her throat and I can still smell the cigarette smoke.

I miss her.