My mother’s mom, Arlene Eugenia Espey, is known to me as Grammy.  She was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia on January 5,1923 as Arlene Eugenia Brock.  She is seventy-eight and is still going about doing the things that she was doing years ago!  She has lived on our 86-acre family farm way before I was born and even before my mom was born!  She often walks down the driveway to visit and spoil me.   When my Grammy was young she had two sisters, three brothers and, her mom and dad.  Her parent’s names were Gilbert and Nancy Brock.

        Grammy said that her personal hero was her dad.  She said “ he was a very good dad, if we needed something he would get it for us.  When we were feeling down he would encourage us to keep going.”

        They worked on their farm for a living.  Her sister’s names were Adlene and Agnes.  Her brother’s names were Arl, Arthur, and Delbert. She went to Hillsboro Elementary in her younger years.    She got to school by having her parents drive her.  My Grammy’s favorite games were marbles, jacks, and jump rope.   Her favorite toy was her doll, and her favorite pet was Curly the sheep.   She also had a groundhog as a pet.

      When my Grammy got into her teenage years many things happened to her.  One of her most humorous experiences was when she was out in the outhouse and got trapped in there by the buck sheep.  Back then she did not have a bathroom in her house because it was too expensive.  She told me that she was stuck out in there sometimes for an hour at a time.   She was afraid to leave because the sheep would chase her.   Grammy said that she often enjoyed playing ring around the rosy, jump rope, and fox and the goose with her friends.  After my Grammy got out of high school she decided not to go to college.    Her favorite thing to do in her teen years was to go to the pie socials in their town.   Grammy did not do many types of sports but according to what she told me she loved to play baseball.   She said that she was a good fielder and runner but she wasn’t good at hitting the ball.   Speaking of what she liked to do, my Grammy loved to collect butterflies and be with her friends.

        When she was in her teens she had one job. That job was to do her chores.   She had to collect eggs, carry the firewood, milk the cows, and pick currents, gooseberries, and churn butter.   When she was with her friends she said that they would sometimes call her “Arleneey” as her nickname.   When Grammy went out to different places she would wear a dress.    Back then she told me that it was not proper for girls to wear pants and a blouse.   She said that the boys would wear pants and the girls would wear a dress.   Grammy said that she only had one problem in school.  She had trouble in algebra.   Grammy said that she just didn’t understand how to complete the problems.

        She had many years ahead and she also had many obstacles to overcome.  One of her obstacles was when she moved to Maryland from West Virginia and had to leave all the people who she loved and cared about.    She moved to Maryland and married her first husband.  They had been together since high school.  After they got married, he had to go to war.   She told me that he was a sniper for the army and then all of a sudden he got shot.   He was in the Philippines during World War II right after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  The Japanese killed her husband. When my Grammy first moved here from West Virginia she told me that she moved to the Taylor House.  The Taylor House is a house that I am familiar with.  It is only about two minutes away from our house. When Grammy got into her older years she had many jobs but none of them seemed to last long.  Grammy retired from her job at the sewing factory in the year of 1943.   She then worked at the canning factory for several years.

        She stayed in Maryland and then she met my Pop-Pop. Grammy got married to Pop- Pop in the year of 1950.  They have been together since.  My Grammy had a small family.  There was my mom, Aunt Wendy, and Aunt Cindy.   She told me that she was thankful that there weren’t any health problems in her family. Grammy told me that her biggest accomplishment was bringing up a healthy family.  I can agree that is a big accomplishment.   Grammy said that her favorite place to travel to was back to West Virginia. She goes back every two years for a family reunion.  She sees all of her cousins and relatives and they have a big picnic at Watoga State Park.    Grammy has two really special traditions every year.  They are having her family over on Christmas morning and having Thanksgiving dinner at her house.   On Thanksgiving our family goes to Grammy’s house for a home made dinner.  She makes the turkey and the desserts while my mom makes the rolls, deviled eggs, and the mashed potatoes.  The family holds hands and tells what they are thankful for that year.

        On Christmas morning we all bring presents up to Grammy’s house to put under the tree to give to our family.  The first thing we do and eat a scrumptious homemade breakfast.  We have eggs, pancakes, sausage, fresh fruit and orange juice.  After we eat breakfast, we open the gifts. Grammy always gets us kids a lot of presents.   My Dad says that she “is the best mother-in-law anyone could ask for”. My Grammy does go to a Methodist church every now and then with Pop- Pop.  They have belonged to the Jarrettsville United Methodist Church for 50 years.

        Grammy’s best friend was Edra Sparks. Unfortunately she died a few years ago due to cancer.     When Grammy and Edra were younger they used to go to dances.  They would also go to Ocean City before they had their children.    Grammy has a few hobbies that help keep her occupied.  They are cooking, gardening, and taking care of her grandchildren.   She has four grandchildren.  Kirby 17 years old, Thomas 15 years old, Lucas 9 years old and me, 11 years old.   Every year Grammy and Pop-Pop plant a big vegetable garden.  After the garden is harvested, Granny cans the vegetables for the winter.   She has had several humorous experiences in her later years.  The one that she will never forget was the time that Pop- Pop took her on a ride on one of his tractors and she hated it!  She was shaken up and her ears were hurting from the noise.  She was scared.   Grammy said that a political and memorable event that happened was the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.  She remembers that she and Pop-Pop were in the family room watching TV when they heard the news.

        She said that the most embarrassing experience she had was when she was shopping with my mom and my Aunt Wendy at the Columbia Mall.  There was a step down from the store and she forgot it was there.    She fell down the steps and landed flat on her face.  The first thing she said was “Did I lose any money?”    My mom and my aunt laughed all day.  Luckily all of her things that she had in her purse were still in there and she did not get hurt.   Grammy claimed that in the future she would like to see Texas and a desert.  She said to me that the deserts are so pretty.  Grammy said,” that in the future I would like to enjoy life and have good health.”

        I have known my Grammy since the day I was born and there are some things that I will never forget about her.  My mom told me that when I was born Grammy and Pop-Pop came to Virginia Beach to see me.  Grammy said I looked like a peach.   I will always remember the times Grammy would baby-sit me.   Grammy told me that when I was little I was in my sand box and a little fury caterpillar crawled into the sand box and I told her that it was a porcupine.  Almost every time we see a little furry caterpillar she reminds me of that story, we still both enjoy hearing it.     If I did something that would scare her she would say, “Oh my land child, you must be careful!”  There is no way that I will forget how superstitious she is.   Every time I see her she almost always says some thing superstitious.   She won’t let you walk under a ladder, and you must leave by the same door you entered.  You can’t thank her for a plant and she does not like when a black cat crosses in front of her car.   I will also remember the day that I put my barn kitten into a lunch bag and took it to Grammy’s house.   I told her that it was my surprise lunch for the next day and I asked her to open it for me.  The second she touched the bag she freaked out.  I told her that it was a baby opossum and she screamed.  At the same second my kitten put her head out of the paper bag and my Grammy blew out a sigh of relief.  Ever since that day we have laughed about it, even Grammy laughs with us.  Almost every time I got to see Grammy on the weekends and in the middle of the week she would give me some Jell-O and whipped cream.  If we need something to eat she would make it for us.  When I feel upset I call her up on the phone or I walk up to see her.  When I do this it helps me feel better about what had happened.  When I was six years old I ran away.  Mom knew right away that I had gone to Grammy’s house.  When I was little and my mom and I disagreed  I would threaten  that I was going to call Grammy.  I will always trust Grammy and I will always love her.  I feel very fortunate to have such a wonderful Grammy and to live so close to her.  Believe it or not I see her at least once a day.  That is how close I am to her.  I think that I am just as close to her as I am to my own parents.
These are the things that I will never forget about Grammy and there is one thing that I would like her to know. “No matter what may happen she will always be my Grammy and I will always love her and nothing can change that.”