My grandmother loved me like no other. I was her first grandchild and one of many, yet I felt special. I truly believe all of my cousins felt special in their own way too. I don't want to take away from that, it's just that my grandmother Rebecca Lee Blair had a way of making you feel like you were all that mattered. As much as she attempted to utilize material things to make you feel important, it was her heart that beat loudest of them all. The hugs my grandmother gave were the best I ever received. To this day, those hugs rein supreme and I can still envision her arms around me. She exuded love and I never felt like she didn't have it for me or those in her life.
Rebecca Lee Blair was my friend. The Fridays and Saturdays that I spent playing poker with her and her friends remains some of my greatest memories. It was an extended period of time that made me feel like I was included and accepted. My grandmother made sure to remind me in very subtle ways just how much she loved me and those poker games were just one of the ways. Playing alongside her, my dad and stepmother, my dearly departed grandfather Haywood, my dearly departed aunt Willa and their dearly departed friends Marge, Paul and Virginia as well as Lucille and Pat are some of the highlights of my life. It was during one of those poker games that I had my first sip of jack. Sitting around the table playing cards with people three times my age, sipping jack and cracking jokes. I was only 16 when I started and It was the life.
My grandmother Rebecca Lee Blair is so deeply missed. Sometimes when I'm sitting on my couch I tear up because I miss my friend. I miss our Sunday afternoons where she would bake cookies and we'd eat those and sip tea as we battled it out over scrabble. I miss laying on her bed falling asleep trying to watch tv. I miss the summers I spent going to the flea market with her. I miss when me and my grandmother would go to Atlantic City alongside some of my other loved ones. I miss sitting in church and constantly looking back waiting for my grandmother Rebecca Lee Blair to make her entrance with her full fur coat and matching dress, hat and shoes. I miss my grandmother telling me how she really felt about situations and circumstances that surrounded her. I miss seeing the devotion my grandmother exhibited for her family even those who shunned her, took advantage of her and blamed her for the mistakes of others. I miss witnessing the bond of friendship and sisterhood that my grandmother had with her true best friend, her sister Willa Mae Goodwin. I miss watching her be a friend to her mother. DAMN.....I really miss my grandmother Rebecca Lee Blair.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA....may you rest in peace eternally!!