Judy Ellen is an wonderful women. She has short white hair. Just like any other grandmother, right? Sure she looks like another other grandmother but she’s not. At least not to me any way. She has a sense of humor and is very kind hearted.

While I was asking grandma about herself she told me what it was like to grow up when she did. She keep told me “our elderly neighbors had the first TV, they would turn their TV on so Jeanne and I could watch Howdy Doody from our bedroom window, across the driveway, into their living room.” that is what they did because her parents could not afford a TV at the time.

When I asked grandpa about grandma he said “Great, Fantastic, Adventurous, Stimulating, Fun and Lasting.” that is how he described her.
Now I asked them both what it was like when none of the children they had were girls. My grandma gave birth to four boys. My dad being the third child. Grandma told me “When I was expecting Kyle (youngest) I prayed for another boy. If he had been a girl with all those brothers, she would have been a tomboy. The boy's growing up had their squabbles, once grandpa bought a pair of boxing gloves so they could settle their argument by boxing. Went OK for awhile but one of them decided to swing their arm around and hit the other one. That was the end of the boxing gloves.” right after she said that I told her that two out of her four granddaughters were tomboys.

She went ahead and said “As for not having any girls, grandpa's dad had a rhyme about boys being a pain and trouble until they were 7 but girls were a pain and trouble from that age on. Wish I could remember it. Don't think that applies to any of my granddaughters though.” she was happy that she didn’t have any daughters but she loves her granddaughters endlessly.

When I got to the part of where I needed to find out what grandma’s legacy is I thought about how she has always been there for me whenever I need her. She is funny, nice, loving. Anything that you would want in your grandmother. She has made an imprint in my mind of what I want to be when I am a grandma. I went ahead and asked her what she thought her legacy is. This is how she responded “(I) hope I will be remember for being a nice person, I am sure I wasn't all of the time.” so to her that is what she left behind on others.

Grandma sorry to tell you this but you are very clueless. You have left more behind than what you think. You taught me to live by this rule or as you call it “the Golden Rule."Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.". I want to follow in your footsteps. Why else would I be named after you Nicole Ellen?

You told me what you thought about your childhood “my childhood was rather dull compared to now days, but at the time I thought it was great, fantastic in fact.” you said that “When I was growing up we played ball in the road in front of our house. Jumped rope in the road, played hide n go seek, tag, usually running around in 3 yards. If we got tired we sat on someone's front steps and just talked. There were no organized sports in the summer. Occasionally we would go to the Orphanage playground(although we weren't supposed to) and play with the kids, they had great toys, nice teeter totters', lots of big swings. They had a neat circular swing that held maybe 15 kids and you would have to stand up on it to make it go around. My mom had to prove to my grammar school that we lived over a mile from the school so I could stay for lunch. If not I had to walk home then back to school. Dad took the only car to work. It took some time for dad and mom to save so we could have a TV. After dinner we would put chairs by the table so there would be room for anyone to come in and watch TV. Never knew who was there unless you had to use the bathroom. At 7th grade I was in the high school building, there were after school activities but I if I missed the last city bus that went my way, I had to walk the 2 plus miles home. So I wasn't in too many after school activities. In winter mom would take us to a big natural pond down by the lake to ice skate. There was a man that kept a fire going in this small building so we could come in occasionally to get warm. In later years the pond was filled in for houses. Such a shame.” I would want to have this childhood that you had. It sounds so much less complicated.

Grandma your legacy is that you keep smiles on everybody's faces and that theres no need not to be who you are and not be proud of it, because you should be proud of who you are.