💕 | Blogmas Day 7

Every family has that one person who is just a little bit more special than the rest. You're not supposed to have favourites but let's be honest, everybody has them, I know you do. In my family, my favourite was most definitely my nana. She was the head of our family, the glue that kept us all together, she was one of a kind.

Nana was such a selfless person, always doing as much as she could for others. She's built houses for underdeveloped communities in less developed countries more than once, interpreted and became a befriender for the deaf and volunteered as a first aider as well! Now I know who I get my eagerness to help others from. The last time she flew to a different country to build houses and community halls was when she was 60! Nothing was stopping her, I was just frustrated that I was to young to go with her that last time! Like me, my nana had epilepsy but she used her experiences and knowledge to help others by volunteering for Epilepsy Scotland for over thirty years. She helped newly diagnosed individuals to accept and understand the diagnosis, raised money for the organisation and helped to organise events. She truly was an amazing person.

As I have mentioned, nana has built houses and community buildings in less developed countries. Well, the last time she did this she somehow managed to throw her false teeth in a public bin. Now can you imagine a woman searching frantically through a public bin? You would automatically think she had dropped something valuable like a ring or something. That is exactly what the three Romanian men who stopped to help her search through the bin thought. Well, until she finally found her teeth and they realised. I would have paid to see this whole scene unfold. It is just so typically nana. She was always doing daft things like this and as her grandchildren, it was our obligation to never let her forget these clumsy moments.

I have never been a mummy's girl or a daddy's girl but I have always been a nana's girl. Each Saturday we would all go to Morrison's for lunch and to get my nana's weekly food shop. Before we left the house, I would secretly pack pyjamas, clean knickers and my teddy into a tiny backpack. After we'd finished lunch and the shopping I would always ask nana if I could stay over with her. She always said yes as long as my mum agreed and the only issue my mum ever had was going home to get my things. Little did she know, I already had it packed and with me nearly every single time! Saturday's had always been my favourite. Lunch at Morrisons, back to nana's to help her make dinner for us both, eating together whilst watching 1 vs 100, snuggling up to watch Casualty and then countless episodes of CSI (no I was definitely not old enough to watch CSI but I loved it) and then nana would tuck me into bed and put a video on for me to fall asleep to. It was always either a non-disney cartoon of Beauty and the Beast or a True Movie (again, I definitely wasn't old enough to watch). Then, the next day, I would go to church with her. It was the best, I loved staying with my nana nearly every weekend.

I treasure memories like this.

Trips to the zoo, holidays in the cottage in St Andrew's, even the simple things like nana picking me up from school and getting the bus home. I love them all.

I remember one of the trips to the zoo with my youngest cousin Adam in particular. We spent the whole bus journey murdering songs with nana telling us how good we sounded. It was just us two and nana that day and it was great. Half way through the day, nana had given us a pound each to have a shot on the helter skelter slide. We were thrilled. Now, Adam being a typical, competitive little boy decided he wanted to race to the bottom but then cheated so he would win. The joke was on him though because he ended up breaking his arm, twice. Once when he landed at the bottom of the slide at an awkward angle and then once when I came down the slide and slid over his already broken arm. Adam then did what any little boy would do at this stage...he went and hid up a tree. I will never get the image of my nana attempting to climb this tree to get Adam down out of my memory. It was brilliant. He eventually came down and we took him to hospital. He was so chuffed to be getting a cast on his arm so that people could sign it. Nana was the first to sign it though, naturally. Even now Adam claims I broke his arm that day and it's been nearly 10 years! I don't think either of us will forget how good that day was though, despite the broken bones.

As I mentioned before, my nana had epilepsy. She was diagnosed at the age of twelve and my god did she get herself into some sticky situations because of it. She managed to break both of her legs whilst having a seizure one time. Not only that, she managed to do so whilst in a hospital anyways. She also somehow managed to end up having a seizure on live train tracks with an oncoming train swiflty approaching. God knows what was going through the minds of the men who jumped onto the track to lift her up to safety. My nana truly was something else. I literally have no words to describe her.

Recently, we lost my nana so these memories really are only memories now. I have hundreds of stories and memories about my nana I could share. In fact, I could probably write an entire book! I treasure each and every one of these memories. The good, the bad, the happy, the sad and the moments you couldn't make up if you tried.

This will be our first Christmas without my nana, it will be hard but I will not let the sadness get in the way of the celebration. Nana loved Christmas and so do I and I will enjoy the day as much as I can, for myself and for her. These are two of my favourite pictures, the first is from Christmas last year and is probably one of the last pictures I had taken with my nana. The second is one of the last times she was able to leave the house, go to Morrison's for lunch and do her shopping. Every time I look at these photo's, they make me smile, she makes me smile.

This is not a sad post, it is a happy one. We all lose someone special to us at some point in our lives, it's just the way life goes but it's the memories that keep us all going and that is why I decided to share some of my favourite memories of my nana today.

Merry Blogmas!