Remembering Anne Deatherage, our beloved Grannie Annie, whose zest for life and travel lives on in her grandchildren. We miss you every day.

My mom so hard to love when younger but pushed it always. Growing up I was mom most times because of other things. She trusted me always. Love her so much. Kept her from harm. Laughed for good times. Wished there were more. Now she’s at peace. Been missed for 17 years.

My dear mother in law who was a wonderful person

My Aunt DELLA was a special person to me &I know that I was a special person to her.
I used to visit her in her room when she’d wake up from an afternoon nap. We’d sit and talk for a while before going downstairs to get ready for dinner.
When she came down with dementia at first it seemed funny but then I was devastated when she didn’t know who I was!
I have so many memories of my time with my aunt Della . She was an incredible woman and friend to so many and especially to me!

My grandfather’s greatest daily joy was to walk up the hill behind his house to his favorite spots: garden/orchard, workshop, and chicken coop. After my grandmother passed, Grandpa McCoy developed dementia and moved in with my parents for full-time care. Every day, he asked to walk from the lower-level entrance of their house to the top of the hill (driveway). It may have taken him way longer, and his chickens and fig tree were not waiting for him at the top, but it still gave him joy. Thank you, Grandpa, for teaching me that joys are not only at the top of the hill but can be found during the climb.

I remember how you waited every night for your 6 little kids, now grown, to come home. We were so loved.

I worked in several nursing homes in a ten year span in my 30-40s. I took care of a lot of dementia patients. It was a tough job but I loved it. I love taking care of people. I loved the stories the patients told me because it was usually when they were little. Sometimes us nursing aids were their only family and they trusted us with their memories.

My aunt, Judy Hunter, is my father’s second oldest sister. She was married, until his death, to a Statistics professor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. There is no doubt in my mind that I would’ve become a very different person if she hadn’t seen something she liked in me and made me feel special. No matter how young I was, she made me feel like my thoughts were valuable. She always took me aside at large family gatherings to spend time with just me. She opened my eyes to how life could be lived differently than the one I grew up in: organic eating, tai chi, fondue, community gardens, lifelong book clubs. She was a passionate, renowned expert/speaker on Thomas Merton. She spent years documenting our family’s genealogy in incredible detail. I once asked a simple question about it. She went into such so much historical political and religious data and personal family history that I had to get out a notebook to keep track of it all. I get my long-windedness from her. :) She was a successful attorney (at a time when most women were not working professionals) who in later years worked to teach older folks how to protect their money from devious fraudsters. The first time I ever travelled without my parents was to stay with my aunt in Madison when I was around 15 years old. I loved every minute of it. She has been in a care facility for some time now due to her dementia. She has a wonderful set of caregivers who email updates weekly. It is always a joyous moment when the updates include her sounding just like her old self – stubbornly resisting help and getting her button done herself, speaking up for herself, etc. She doesn’t care to eat much anymore, but she still like chocolate which I send to her with pictures of us together. She doesn’t remember me, but she recognizes me as family and has told the caregiver, “I’ve always liked her.”
I’ve always loved her.
I can’t bear the day she is gone.

How ridiculously happy and in love you both were with each other and in life. Will miss you forever beautiful ones.

I remember all the nicknames you gave us as children writing to me in German and “pepper” money for our daughters. Tobacco pipes German mugs, sitting in your chair with a newspaper. Helping plan our trips handing us a welcome drink after our long journeys to reach you both, endless lazy days chatting and laughing . Reading at our wedding and feeling so very proud ❤️

I remember sitting on your foot as a toddler while you searched the house for me, calling out like you didn’t know where I was.

I remember how you’d pick me up and put me on your shoulders when I got too tired.

I remember you teaching me how to drive, how we spent hours in an abandoned parking lot and every so often you’d yell ‘dog’ and I’d slam on the brakes so hard we almost got whiplash.

I remember the letters you wrote to me when I lived across the country and you always signed them “sealed with a sweet kiss.”