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Nan Shearry
By Jody Parker
My daughter, Jamie, is 5 years old and is the only grandchild and the only great-grandchild in the family. She absolutely loves my mother to death. I feel like I am looking into my past when I watch the two of them together. >
Jamie get so excited when she hears that we are going to Nan Shearry's house that she can barely contain herself. It is amazing how they have connected with each other. Anytime my mom is around her she has a huge smile that goes ear to ear, and her eyes just sparkle with excitement. > >
When Jamie was first born she was very small (5 pounds, 12 ounces and only 17 inches long), and I was only 19 years old and terrified that I was going to hurt her in some way. Of course, my mom was with my husband and I through Jamie's birth and was at our home regularly for the first two weeks following her birth. I watched her bathe, change, feed, rock, swing, sing to and play with Jamie with this look in her eyes. I still to this day do not know what to call it. It's as though the whole world vanishes when she is with Jamie. > >
As Jamie got older the bond between them has grown very strong. My mother, the strict disciplinarian that she was when I was a child, the enforcer of healthy food, the only person who cared about what was behind my ears and who was interested in the last time I took a bath, was now the same person who eats chocolate ice cream in her bed with my daughter at 1 in the morning while watching Cinderella. She is also the same person who sits outside with my child and digs in the mud with her nails to plant flowers. >
I am amazed every time I see them together. The bond of love between them is as strong as any I have ever seen between a mother and child. I don't really care if my mother wins any contests or not, because to Jamie and myself she is the best grandmother the world has ever known.