Earth has no sorrows that Heaven can't heal.

As I held Nanny's hand and told her how much I love her, how much I'm going to miss her, and how thankful I am for her I couldn't help but think that her hands tell her whole life story.  If we sat down and thought about all the wonderful, joyful, and difficult things she's done with her hands we would quickly see what a caring and giving woman she is.  Her hands prove that her life was one that was well-spent.

-As a child Nanny used her hands to help her mom and dad on their farm.
-She helped "mother" her younger sister
-Then as a teenager she used her hands to place a ring on Pappaw's finger.  Her left hand housed her wedding ring from Pappaw for nearly 58 years.
-She rocked, changed the diapers, and raised 7 of her own babies
-she patted the bottom and played "ride little horsey down to town" with 14 grand-kids
-she cradled her great grandkids and loved them more than they'll ever know
-she laid her daddy, her momma, brothers, sisters, and daughter to rest


With her servant hands she also:
-planted and picked a garden with Papaw every year
-canned boo-koodles of pickles and handed them out so freely
-made enough jelly to feed all of the tri-county area year after year
-canned anything and everything and entered it in her grandkids names at the fair for so many years so we would have money to put in our "piggy banks"
-picked switches off of her trees to discipline us all.. too many times to count
-put us on the couch to "hug it out" until we got along with each other
-flipped skillets to make pancakes and fried corn bread
-held a ladle to stir millions of gallons of sweet tea so there was always some in the refrigerator if someone came to visit
-scooped out ice cream to make us hound dogs
-turned the tv on to watch wheel of fortune and her "stories"
-drove all of her grandkids to "town" without a driver's license
-shelled purple hull peas until she had purple stains on her fingers
-shucked corn in front of the shop fan
-picked plums
-helped her grandkids go "bottle busting" in the ditches by her house
-dug through the "big house" to find her kids' old softball gloves, balls, and bats so we could have family softball games
-packaged deer meat and fish after every hunt or fishing trip of Papaw and Uncle Wayne's
-prepared food for our family for Sunday lunch for so many years
-hosted the Moore family for the yearly family reunion
-dusted all of her salt & pepper shakers and bells
-picked up pecans and cans so she could get money to hide from papaw
-washed bed sheets to let guests stay in her home
-lifted the deep freeze lid because she didn't think anyone else knew how
-made the biggest pan of dressing I've ever seen every year for Thanksgiving
-made chocolate pies, dishpan cookies, pecan pies, oatmeal and coconut pies, and crescents to please the tastebuds of us all at Christmas
-decorated her miniature Christmas tree
-hid Easter eggs
-sealed tupperware dishes because she always sent some kind of food home with us when we visited her
-planted touch me nots so her grandkids could enjoy popping them
-pinned her white hair back with bobby pins
-braided our hair
-waved until she could no longer see us when we left her house
-talked with her hands. ALWAYS.
-slipped on her house shoes which she never walked around the house without
-hung up the phone after saying "holler if you need me"

And those were the final words I heard her say.  "holler if you need me".  That's who she was.
-She lived a  simple, selfless life.  She was always thinking about someone else.  She was always willing to give more than she even had.  She loved us all so well.  She was and is NANNY.