Grandma needs a new name

Hi everyone,

Thanks again for all the suggestions and your stories. It's truly inspiring to hear how great being a grandmother is. I LOVE this little girl with all my heart.

Her mommy, my youngest, Emily got realllllly pissed off at her husband, whom it seems has had a difficult time becoming a father. He's really a great Dad and is hands-on and very loving when he's with her. He has had a tough life without a lot of supervision and he's had to grow up pretty much on his own. We love Justin like a son. They have been together @ 6 years, married 3 this Oct. But he gets this wild hair and spends money like it's free, steals cash she had put away to spend on the baby. He bounced a BUNCH of checks, lost his job (not his fault, economy) and it cost a weeks worth of his unemployment check to pay for all the charges. Then, rather than tell her, he hid it and worse, lied to her face. Swiped her ATM card, guessed her PIN and took rent money from an account that she had deliberately removed his access from.

OMG, this has been going on for months, really ever since she got pregnant. He would go out to local pubs and get shit-faced drunk and we suspected using other substances too. About 2 months ago, she locked him out when he wasn't home by 3 am. He slept that night in his car. We've tried all the talk. Suggested all the possible solutions. Finally, he admitted being addicted to something and entered a program that kept him locked in for about 6 days. He detoxed. He went to counseling, AA and another program everyday from 9-2. Several good weeks passed and then the above referenced checks bounced and the lie-ing and she called a friend who has had the same problems with her husband and her friend invited Emily for a visit, so she took the baby and went to near Destin Beach, FL and stayed there for TWO SOLID WEEKS. She didn't talk to him for the first week, then little by little they started talking, and on Tues. this week, she returned home. They asked me not to meet them at the airport, so I pouted, but stayed away. Finally I saw the baby yesterday and was so relieved when she knew me. She's only 5 months old, and I was really scared that she might not remember, but that big smile and eye contact confirmed that we have bonded. I've called myself Nanna but she doesn't really respond to that. Last night, I was babysitting and she woke up.... this was so cool.........  I went into the nursery and she was talking to herself, kinda fussing, and I gently pulled the cover to where she could see me and I said, "It's your Nanny", and she grinned so big I thought she'd POP and thought my heart would POP right along with it.

So, until she can talk, and in honor of my loving Grandmother, I'm gonna call me Nanny when I talk to her and if she can't say it or if she mutates it, so be it.

I loved my Nanny, her real name was Johnsie, but when she was little, her Dad called her His Little Annie Rooney. She had a little sister, Augusta (Gussie) who couldn't say all that and shortened it to Nanny, so although she was never employed as a Nanny, everyone called her that from about the age of 8. They were born in the late 1880's. Nanny lived to be 92, grandmother to six of us who bonded thru her and are still as close as siblings today. They all "approved" of my choice and agree that of the 6 of us, I am the most like our Nanny. Size, shape, smile, heart. We loved her dearly. If I can be half the grandmotherly influence on my grandbaby, I will have succeeded in life.

YES.... It makes me want to fight ever harder against disease and pain. I'm going to physical therapy 3 times a week for 2 weeks now and am seeing improvement where I thought I would never be able to go again. 

Thanks for caring. Listening. Sharing. I love all of you wonderful supportive women. This is my best therapy overall.

Love, Connie   aka  Nanny.