A Favorite Christmas Memory from author Carrie Fancett Pagels & a Giveaway!

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The “Gift” of a Grandmother

This may sound like a crazy post, but I discovered that I had a living grandmother (my great-grandmother) only when I was in my 50’s.  I’ll explain but let me tell my little story first.

Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers died before I was born. This greatly affected both my parents.  My father’s mother died when he was twelve and he never got over it.  One of the good things about him going to heaven was for him to be reunited with his beloved mother who died in her 30’s. My mother’s mom died when my mom was in here early 20’s and a newlywed and her mother in her early 40’s.

Blessedly I had a wonderful great-aunt who assumed the role of grandmother. And I had a step-grandmother who tried to be a grandma figure, too. But my mother and my older brother and sister told me that my paternal great-grandmother had died before I was born. My father never commented.

But I had recollections of someone rocking me in a rocking chair and early in my adult life the scent of lemon verbena soap, in a historical museum shop, brought back a strong recollection of a grandmother. Memories of wood smoke, too, and a wood floor and hands wrapped around me. When I was about twelve, my great-aunt pointed to my great-grandmother’s picture (with my great-grandfather) and asked me if I remembered her.  She said that her mother had asked her to look after us kids when she was gone.  When I said to my great-aunt that my great-grandmother died before I was born she blinked at me and may have denied it.  Then I told her that my mother said she had. Kids pretty much believe what their moms say so who was I to question such a fact?  As a sign of the times, my great-aunt said nothing more, probably to not cast any aspersions on my mother.

Fast forward to about five years ago and me looking through genealogy and finding something showing my great-grandmother died almost 30 years after her daughter, (when I was a young child.)  I talked with my mother. She explained how my great-grandmother used to have us out to the cabin all the time—that she constantly called (on the party line!) and asked them to come out.  And that she’d rock us children and oh how I loved to be rocked. And that my great-grandmother and my maternal grandmother discovered that they lived within one county of each other in Kentucky and knew many of the same people.

So many memories and confusion I had growing up were reconciled.  Researchers have found that scents are some of the strongest memory makers.  The fragrance of lemon verbena anchored me to the great-grandmother I remembered but whose memory I was denied (I don’t think deliberately.) My great-grandmother died before my younger sister was born and for that Christmas my father made me my own little tiny children’s rocker covered in vinyl!  I have a picture of me holding my little sister and rocking her.  Just like great-grandma would have done.

When I prayed about a story for Guidepost Books “A Cup of Christmas Cheer” I wanted to spend

time with the great-grandmother I’d gotten to spend some early times with.  And with the memory of her love.  It was amazing writing out a story where I could have several little girls get to enjoy time with a grandmother figure. A bunch of the story got cut about all the things I had them do (maybe I’ll post on my website!) but the process of writing the story was like making a wonderful new Christmas memory.  And this one has me remembering that A Cup of Christmas Cheer sold through 30,000 copies in under a month!!!  And went into a second print run, PTL!

Do you have a Christmas memory that is powerful?  Or one that was like a puzzle?

Giveaway:  Answer the question for an opportunity to receive an assortment of lovely scented soaps from Carrie! 

US ONLY. Leave an EMAIL so we can contact the winner. 

Carrie Fancett Pagels (www.carriefancettpagels.com) is author of Amazon top-rated Civil War novella Return to Shirley Plantation: A Civil War Romance. Carrie also contributed to God’s Provision in Tough Times, Lighthouse of the Carolinas (July, 2013). Her short story, Snowed In: A Northwoods Christmas, will appear in Guidepost Books “A Cup of Christmas Cheer” (October, 2013). With a Ph.D. in School Psychology, Carrie served as a psychologist for twenty-five years. She has two popular group blogs: Overcoming With God (www.overcomingwithGod.com) and Colonial Quills (www.ColonialQuills.org).

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