Grandma Cookie Jar

My Grandma Bailey always made homemade cookies.  Her sugar cookies were my favorite and she knew it.

She would always make me loads of them during the family holidays.

Grandma Bailey's philosophy was:  She said I could eat some before dinner, "as long as I didn't ruin my appetite for dinner."

Heck as a teenager, I could eat a hundred, never get full, and also be hungry come dinner time!

Don't threaten me with a good time.

So it meant a lot when I got this Grandma cookie jar after her passing:

Reminds me of her and her undying love for me.  Even tho I wasn't a blood grand daughter, she always treated me as such.

My first funeral was hers.   And I could not stop crying enough to speak, when they asked if anyone had thoughts or memories to share.  I so wish I could go back and say something now in that church in Santa Rosa, Texas that day.

I love you Grandma Bailey!

Grandma Bailey Mailing Label

I really loved my Grandma Bailey.  

She lived in Santa Rosa, Texas, just a spit and a throw from the border of Mexico in south Texas, surrounded by vast acres of farm land.

When I would mail her cards of gifts when I was in my teens, I sent them to "Grandma Bailey. "  

Like, literally

Grandma Bailey

P.O. Box 1234

Santa Rosa, Texas

She would tell me later,  "the mailman came by and would yell to her through the screen door:  "is there a Grandma Bailey here?"  and she would laugh as she told the story at family gatherings.

I never understood for years why that was funny, but I just smiled along as she told the story.

But you see. ... As a child I never knew her first name.   So the words I put on the label were what I called her: "Grandma."

I didn't know until I was in my late teens that her REAL name was Virginia.  Virgina Bailey.

Now as I reflect back I see just how fun and funny that was!

And how cool it was my Mom or Dad never corrected the label :)

 Grandma with my Mom

Grandma with my Dad, his Mom