Okay, so last post, I used a particular stamp, that I said my sister designed. and told you it was a whole other story...
This is the story...
About four years ago, my Sister designed some cute little images. one of which was based on my Nannan (memaw, mommom, insert whichever endearing term you use for your grandmother)
She was a very proper British citizen, who queued, liked her tea, and had a wicked sense of humor...I say she queued...she did, until someone jumped it...then it was fair game to use her elbows, hands tucked in and elbows out, to wrestle her way through a crowd. If she didn't like you, you'd know instantly, she had a sixth sense at detecting bull...poo, lol.
She would be up, at the first bit of music that she could boogie to, grabbing her skirt hem, and swishing it around, kicking her legs in the air and dancing, long after the rest of us had given in.
But overall, she was a wonderful lady that lead a long, and relatively happy life.
We always called her Hurricane Hilda...Of course, not to her face...we'd have to run, fast if we did, because she'd still have a right good go at catching you...and had learned patience, throughout her 92 years on this plane.
Unfortunately, dementia took hold of her, and the fun loving lady we knew her to be faded. Though not in our eyes.
My Sister had drawn out a few quirky ideas she'd had, and a company offered to make them up (the company screwed her over, but that's not what this is about, and details do not need to be shared.) She designed a couple of sets of stamps for said company, which they went on to produce as rubber stamps. They sold all over the country, at craft exhibitions, and then the biggy...On Create and Craft TV...on which they sold out of their stock whenever it aired.
My Nan Died as this particular set was designed, and was also aired on Create and Craft. Only days after her passing, they aired the new set, of what they had decided to name, the wrinklies. We sat and watched with a tears in our eyes, as the presenters and guests, demonstrated the stamps. So my sister emailed in, and they read it out on air, she had briefly mentioned how she had designed the stamps, the story behind the one base on my Nan, and how we were getting ready to lay her to rest...The studio was somber for a few moments as the presenter read, with tears in her own eyes.
My Nan, loved being sat in her deck chair, sunning herself, over the years. But after a lucky recovery from skin cancer, she had to be more careful. So she would plaster her nose, the site of the removed cancer, in total sun block. She would walk around in the summer, looking like a tennis player, with this big white blob of cream covering her nose. So my sister designed the stamp of her, sat in her deck chair, and added a few things to make a scene, like a small sandcastle, and a sea shell...But she also designed a little bottle of sun screen...with 100 on it to represent the sun block.
It's the small details that make you smile.
So anyway, because of the bad relationship my sister had with the company that made them, who hounded her for new designs all the time, she stopped designing them. I never managed to get a set either.
Then out of the blue, just before this past Christmas, I was looking on ebay for some cheap and cheerful stamps for a craft hamper, that I was putting together for my ten year old daughter.
And I stumbled across this set.
It made me stop short for a moment, while I took in what I had found.
There they were, the set of stamps that my sister had designed, with the one of Hurricane Hilda in her chair.
I toyed with the idea of buying them, as I wasn't sure I could handle the memories...But I bought them, and am glad I did.
I had forgotten about the little bottle with 100 on it, and chuckled to myself as it brought on a tirade of memories, all wonderful.
This is neither here or there in regard to the story of the stamp, but I now wear her wedding ring as my own. I remarried just over a year after her passing, to my half cousin, ( i know this is frowned upon in some places, but here it is legal, and we love each other so very much) I had a crush on him when I was 10. And he came back into my life when I needed it the most...So when she died, my mum asked if I wanted her ring to wear as my own wedding ring. I only hope it can bring me as many happy years with my husband as it did her and my Granddad. I also think she would be happy that because of our marriage, it has brought together our family, from Oxford, her favourite family at that, whom we saw only for special occassions, if they could make it all the way up here.
As sad as I was when she passed, I was also happy for her. My Granddad had died...well...years before her, and she had been waiting, since that very day, to go and join him.
She finally got her wish.
The point of this post started to just be me, telling you how those stamps came to be...
But has instead turned into me writing about one of the most beautiful, influential women I have had the privilege to call NANNAN.
I will love you forever.
This is the set of stamps designed by my sister, That's So Suzi
This is the one based on my Nan.
And this was the finished card I did.
I have decided that it will be a birthday card for my Nan, she would have been 95 on the 13th of January.
XOXO
