TODAY’S LIVING EXAMPLE OF JESUS:
NELLIE “GRANNY” HUBBARD
Last night I went to one of our local nursing homes to visit Granny, our next door neighbor, who just moved in there this week. She really isn’t my grandma but I’ve called her Granny for as long as I can remember. In fact when I was little I actually thought that was here real name. She is 94 years old but you would never know it. She is independent and has just recently started having
Growing up Granny always let us kids play in her big garden (if she hadn’t planted it that summer) or back yard. We were allowed to come get her croquet set out of her garage whenever we wanted without asking. She use to work at a store in the town next too us, and every once in awhile bring back candy for us from work. Since my dad’s twin brother married Granny’s daughter, Granny would always let us come over and spend time with our cousins when they came to visit.
As my mom and I said in Granny’s room visiting with her last night she shared lots of stories with us. Granny always has stories about just about anything and anybody. She has been in Vestaburg for a long time and knows its history well. But her stories seemed a little different last night. She was telling us about all the food they are given at each meal and how many snacks they get a day. She said their helpings are so large one bowl could feed ten people. It upset her how much food they waste there and even more upset that it was because of government rules and regulations that require them to give so much food. She then told us about how many starving people there are and she had to throw food away because she couldn’t eat it all. She was not impressed to say the least.
She told us about her grouchy roommate and how all Granny can do is laugh at her because she is so ridiculous. She told us she was going to keep talking to her roommate even if her roommate didn’t like it. And she was going to laugh when she said mean things because it was just silly. She said her roommate just needed someone to be nice to her. I’m not sure I could be that loving. I was annoyed with her roommate and I was only there about ten minutes.
She then told us the story of her very cute teddy bear a woman from our church had brought her. It was a fairly expensive teddy bear and Granny wasn’t really happy when she found out. She told us over and over again how nice she thought that was and how much she loved the bear, but she didn’t think it was right someone would spend that kind of money on a teddy bear for her. Mom explained that it was this woman’s ministry to do that sort of thing. Granny quickly said, “I know but the church needs it more than I do. I can get by without a bear. They church could really use that money.”
It didn’t seem to matter to Granny at all that she was in a nursing home. I know she isn’t really happy about it but she had such a great attitude. She talked only about the things she liked and how she was happy there. Just a couple months ago she said she refused to go but now she has been focusing on the positive and still is putting others before herself. When I’m 94 years old I hope I’m loving people and focusing on others just as much as Granny is now. Thank you Granny for showing me Jesus!
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Part 1: Jeffrey Myers (August 9th)
Part 2: Michael and Jeannette Cox (August 15th)
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