My brother and I spent a lot of time with Mamaw and Papaw growing up. In fact there were seasons, like summertime when school was out, where we saw them more than Mama & Daddy. 

At the time, I didn’t realize that kid’s don’t automatically grow up with amazing grandparents. I assumed everyone had a Mamaw (& a Papaw) to pick them up from school & spend almost every day with. As I grew up, I realized how good we had it, and I look back on the last 28 years of my life knowing I was loved by not one set of amazing parents, but two.

In order to understand just how amazing my Mamaw was, it helps to go back to the beginning. She was one of nine siblings from the tiny town Etowah, TN., and the only sibling to move away from TN. That right there speaks volumes about her & her life’s work – everything & I do mean EVERYTHING she did, she did for Love.

We say something like that & it tends to sound cliche, fluffy, just something nice to throw out when someone dies. But Virginia Sisson Carlock lived a life that was none of those things. She was the real deal.

She left her home, her family, her beautiful TN town because she married my Papaw and  he got a job here. Mama was also telling me that after they moved her, they’d get off work on Friday night & drive 8-10 hours back to TN for the weekend. By the time they arrived home, they had to leave again! But she loved her family & Papaw loved her.

She spent years working at the National Bank of Fredericksburg, and served on the Lupus chapter of Fredericksburg; she raised two amazing children, Uncle Steve & my mama, Sharon, and then poured her heart into her two grandchildren: me & my brother, Matt.

She loved the Price is Right & I remember countless summer days watching that show with her in the living room eating cottage cheese. (I have no idea why we always ate cottage cheese when we watched it, but we always did!) I’m willing to bet that my obsession with the color pink comes from her, because she loved that color!

And while she was only 5′ tall, she could snore so loud it would wake you from a dead sleep!! Y’all it was terrible haha!! I remember dreading spending the night at their house growing up because once she started snoring she wouldn’t stop – and then when Papaw joined in there was NO WAY you were sleeping a wink!!  (And I’m sure she’s real mad I just said that because proper is one thing she will always be!!!!) 

She also hated – and I do mean HATED – to have her picture taken!! It’s ironic because Mama loves to take pictures, I am a total ham in front of a camera and then you have Mamaw who’s hiding behind whoever’s in front of her in order to NOT be in the picture! Daddy jokes and said that it wasn’t until she got too old and too slow to move that we actually got pictures of her!

She loved watching baseball & football on TV, but loved it even more when she could watch my brother play. Even though the sun & heat weren’t good for her lupus, she rarely (& I do mean rarely) missed one of his baseball games. When Matt was pitching, Papaw would get defensive over calls the ump would make; if he got a little too fired up you could hear her reprimand him by simply saying: “Jack!”.  She became a baseball-grandma through & through, watching him play in Florida, Georgia, New Hampshire and of course, Virginia. He was always the first person to make her laugh, and could melt her with just a smile – trust me, it drove me crazy growing up!

She and Papaw also drove us down to TN & GA almost every summer & honest to goodness I have no idea how they put up with us for 10+ hours in the car!! Road trips with them were a true road-trip – much to our dismay, they didn’t just hustle to get to the next location but instead took their time to enjoy meals like Cracker Barrel & stops like the Virginia Made Store.

When high school hit and we could drive ourselves to & from school, we didn’t need to stay at their house. Whenever we came home to visit, she always asked us to stay longer. “Oh, you have to go already?” is what she’d say. It didn’t matter if we were there 4 hours or 40 minutes… she always wanted more time with her family.

I don’t have a single memory of her angry. She never raised her voice to us – even though I know we pushed her buttons! Instead, she had “that look” … you know, the look that’s worse than yelling. I knew by the look in her eyes when I had disappointed her and it was a look I never, ever wanted to see.

I said before that everything she did, she did for Love. Her servant-hearted nature meant she didn’t know the meaning of the word “rest”, would drop anything to be there if you needed her & she’d be the first to put her own feelings & comforts aside to make sure you were happy. She was independent and stubborn – character traits she passed down to my mama and me. She was easy to please – not in a push over kind of way – but in the “it’s whatever you want, dear” kind of way.

One of the first times she met my husband, we were at their house eating ice cream. She was so set on the fact that he needed chocolate syrup for his ice-cream and like any boyfriend-meeting-the-grandparents he willingly obliged. (Big sacrifice right?!) In her mind, she decided the store bought syrup on the counter wouldn’t do & melted him chocolate chips to drizzle over his ice cream. I remember looking at her & saying “Mamaw, what are you doing?! The hershey’s syrup is fine!”. Holding a bowl of freshly melted chocolate chips, she looked at me and simple said: “No, it won’t.“

Maybe it’s because at this point in my life I was older, more aware but that story is etched in my memory forever.

To you, it might seem silly. Just a nice old lady doing the cliche grandma thing & feeding her family.

To me, it’s the epitome of her – a kind, steadfast women willing to always go the extra mile for those around her. A woman who loved so fiercely, so hard, that she would do anything in her power to show you. A woman who chose to elevate those around her even if that meant more work for her.

Whether that be through melting chocolate chips, moving away from her hometown, attending baseball games all over the country, getting up early to pack lunches or even feeling guilty for getting sick … she always thought of others before herself.

While I might not share her name (like I do the other grandmother in my life), I hope my life’s work looks like hers. I hope I share her heart. I hope I share her spirit. And I’m so thankful I don’t have to hope that I’ll see her again – I know I will.

xo! kat

Images from our wedding by Katelyn James