Happy Valentines!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In 1983 I was about to turn five years old. That’s the point in life where you’re making some of those early core memories that stick around a lifetime. Little did I know – as a 4 going on 5 year old – it would be the last months that I’d get to spend time with my grandmother, known as ‘Mama Jo’ short, for Josephine H. Hancock. She’d had a pretty good life. A mother to 4 girls and one boy and a pile of grandchildren. Many scattered up and down the east coast, but a few at arms reach. I was lucky enough to live around the corner and soak up a few happy memories before our time would vanish.

She’d taken up cross stitching to pass the time, and was quite good at it. Mama Jo was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and like so many – she was stuck in the house to finish her life. All around her life was bustling. Her children were having children, and most of us grandchildren were just too young to understand why she was ‘going away’.

By February of 1983, she knew she’d not be around to pour her love into her kids and grandkids, so she began cross stitching with a mission. She wanted to leave something tangible that would last. My everlasting Valentine is what you see here. It is known as my ‘Permanent Valentine’. If you are lucky enough to have grandparents, parents or anyone else around that loves you as much as you love them – remind them. Maybe even make them a ‘Permanent Valentine’.