Tell Me A Story – “You have my mother’s eyes!”

Tell Me a Story Challenge :

Choose a person.  Then do any or all of the following:

• Make a list of the top ten stories about this person, a word or phrase will do.
• Choose one story and tell a compelling, short version that will interest your family members in one minute or less.
• Tell a more detailed version of that story including photos if you have them.

Notes:  You can read about my inspiration behind this challenge here.  I’ve decided to reverse the order in my post.  If you are reading this, you like stories so I’ll start with the full story, then the bite-sized story to hook my family members, then the list of ten stories.

Naomi Skeen, my great grandmother

Me

This past summer I attended the annual Rulon & Naomi Peterson Family Reunion.  Rulon & Naomi are my great grandparents.  I usually attend the reunion so I’m quite familiar with my grandfather’s living siblings.  We see each other at weddings and we exchange Christmas Cards and the occasional phone call or email.  We definitely aren’t strangers.

My Grandpa’s youngest brother is Wayne.  I see Uncle Wayne a few times a year and we always talk for a few minutes.  He loves to tell me stories about my Grandpa and I love to hear them.

This past summer Uncle Wayne and I were early arrivals at the reunion.  We were each helping with some last minute arranging and started to chat when he grabbed both of my hands, looked very intently into my eyes and said tearfully, “You have my mother’s eyes.  I had never noticed.  She was a wonderful mother.  Thank you for reminding me of her.”

My great grandmother is so dearly beloved by everyone in our family, including me, and this moment with Uncle Wayne made me feel a new connection with her.  I’m so glad that he told me that.  I will treasure that brief, but poignant conversation all my life.  It was a bridging between generations.

One Minute Story

My Uncle Wayne once told me that I have his mother’s (my great grandmother’s) eyes.

Top Ten Stories List for Naomi (well, in her case eight):

• Picking Cherries
• Chocolate Cake
• Divinity and the Great Depression
• Zucchini Bread
• Letter to Grandpa
• Selling Eggs
• “You have my mother’s eyes.”
• Nao-ma

Note:  I wasn’t ready to move on to a new subject for this weeks story so chose another story from my list about Naomi.  That is the beauty of making the list!