my nana

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My nana.

We shared a middle name and a love for fashion, decorating and big hair.

She was my style icon, the perfect crepe-maker, zebra’s biggest fan.

My last living grandparent.

She passed away yesterday, four months after my grandpa, who she was married to for nearly 70 years. As my uncle said, she literally couldn’t live without him. I have dreaded losing her for years, but they belong together. I am so thankful I was able to visit her a few days before she passed.

It was rare to see her without bright red lipstick — and I learned recently that she even reapplied right before she went to bed. She was fabulously timeless and belonged in a magazine (she most definitely could have been Lucille Ball’s stand-in).

When I grew up, I didn’t know anyone else who had a “nana.” This was just another way she stood out and redefined for me what being a grandmother was.

My favorite memories with my nana:

  • Always receiving a loaf of banana bread for my birthday

  • We took many big family road trips together, and my cousin Jessica and I also were blessed to get to travel with her to Maine when we were in middle school. I have so many memories of this trip: learning to water ski, bathing in the lake (she would sunbathe on the dock in a bikini), trying lamb for the first time, our plane unexpectedly landing in Boston due to fog and having to take a van to Maine, her letting me cliff jump off a 50-foot high cliff into freezing (like 50 degrees!) water.

  • Her walking all over New York City in high heels. She wore flats one day and tripped because she walked better in heels, for real. We found her childhood home in the Bronx and took a photo on the stoop. I wish I could find that photo!

  • She chaperoned my eighth-grade class trip to Washington, D.C., and my cousin Jessica and I loved to pick her up and carry her around because we were so proud she was our grandma.

  • Sneaking ginger cookies from her lazy Susan cabinet

  • Staying overnight at the farm with all my cousins on Christmas Eve and waking up to 21 Christmas stockings lining the fireplace

  • My cousins and I making a Christmas list on a giant piece of red tag board (which is still in the closet at her house!)

  • Her email address was “coolestnana” and I still have a bunch of emails saved from her

  • She always looked fabulous in her voluminous blond hair and bright red lipstick, and whatever else she was wearing: a bikini, a popped collar, leather pants, high heels

  • She taught us all a table prayer in Norwegian that we said before meals (she was very proud of her heritage and was 100% Norwegian).

  • Growing up, I remember some evenings she would call and say she was making crepes in the morning. Those were my favorite mornings! I think I still hold the record for how many pancakes eaten in one sitting.

  • She used to teach me piano. One of our favorite things was for her to play “the skipping song” as we all skipped around her living room.

  • Her unwavering faith has always been an inspiration

Aside from her striking personal appearance, the spaces she created in her home and lake house embodied her style and classy sophistication. I love being in these spaces as I can “feel” her, even when she’s not there.

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Her love and commitment to my grandpa was a huge blessing in my life. Their relationship was really something special. I believe the story is that after her first day at a new school, several boys asked to walk her home. She let my grandpa walk her home, and they were never apart again. 75 years of love!

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She was so beautiful, inside and out.

I will miss her every day of my life.

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