A tribute to Nanny ...

And to my Granddad too.. We're headed a bit off the beaten path today.

Lucy Depeppo is my Grandmother and she's known as "Nanny" to myself, brother and sister; she lives on Staten Island, NY. She is amazing woman who has cancer and it's not good lately.

To say it has been weighing on my mind is putting it lightly.

You may be thinking everyone loves their Grandmother, and sure, many Grandparents are amazing people.

Nanny is really special though, since most of her grand kids are grown she's spent around the last twenty years volunteering in as foster Grandparent in the hospital system in NYC. Over the years she's been flown to Washington DC to receive awards for her role as a foster Grandparent and, even after battling her own issues with cancer for about twenty years is right back at with the kids who need her as soon as she can be.

My Grandfather Jim was a lucky man to have been married to such a selfless, tireless, dedicated and loving woman.

I feel compelled and qualified to write this because as young boy and later as teen I spent parts of my summers, and later entire summers with Nanny and my Grandfather on Staten Island. Not that my cousins and brothers and sisters don't know Nanny, but c'mon.. It was a little nutty to be o.k. with spending so much time around my Grandparents.

The wonderful thing about summers there were the lessons I learned from my Grandparents through direct observation of their relationship and listening to their stories..

One story I will never forget was the story of how my Grandparents dealt with World War Two. My Grandfather received his draft notice and waited for his orders to report to a duty station.. It was, to say the least, stressful and emotional for them. Nanny had recently given birth to a child and as it turns out the policy at the point was to exclude draftees with children from service.

What struck me was the emotion etched in his eyes and present in the voice of my Grandfather, it was wholly apparent to me that as he told the story he was re-living the emotions of that time in his life. I came to believe that there was more than just the telling of that story, it was a way of expressing still tangible love between them.

Nanny provided the emotional bedrock of that relationship as near as I can tell and that my Grandfather treated her so well over a gazillion years of marriage speaks to that.

I talked to her today. She sounded fine and vibrant, like she always has. I heard her voice and it sounded the same to me as it did when I was a small boy on Christmas day phone calls. There was not air of worry or concern, she just hoped to heal up soon.

I hope she does too, without being obviously trite the family needs to have Nanny's reassuring graces over many more family and holiday dinners.