Smiling, Knitting and Singing

If you’ve read our blog at all over the last 5 years, you’ll know about our beloved Nanny Jean.  She is Carly and my grandmother. We called her Nanny or Nan.  There are plenty of blog posts about our Nan.  This is a great one..and this…heck, just search Nanny on our blog:)

Anyway…we are always paying attention for little signs from our Nan.  We are open to that kind of stuff.  Friday was a big one!

Here is how it went down.

I got a call early last week from a sweet older woman looking for help on a prayer shawl.  I told her I’d be happy to help if she came in.  Then she said it was crochet.  Now, I can crochet and if necessary I could probably have limped my way through helping her, but really Carly was the person for this task. Carly is my cousin.  Our Nan taught us both to knit.  You can read a bit more about Carly here.

Carly isn’t the worlds most proficient crocheter either, but she’s better than me.  So, I told the lovely customer when Carly would be in and told her maybe it was best she come in when Carly was working.
A little preface here…

Our Nan loved coins. She got in some trouble once buying too many coins:) She used to collect coins for Carly’s kids. Hogan got quarters, Lily got dimes and Henry got nickels or something like that.  Anyway, coins and Carly and Nan are connected.  A few years ago Carly was moving to a new house and starting a new phase of her life. When she was all done cleaning out a storage locker, she was sweeping it out and found a threepence.


Have I mentioned our Nan was from England?  We just knew then that Nan was watching out for Carly.  Since Nan passed, Carly has been finding dimes in random spots.  It’s just a weird little thing.  So, whenever Carly finds the dimes, she takes a sec and thinks of our Nan.
Cut to Friday.

The crochet customer came in Friday for help with her project. Carly got her back on track (of course she did) and the customer was ready to leave.  She got her cane and started walking out of the classroom. Carly could sense she needed some assistance so she took her elbow and started to help her.  All of a sudden the customer bent down and picked something up and handed it to Carly.

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It was a dime. The customer said “I think this is for you”.  This person, who was having trouble even walking, bent all the way down like it was easy as pie and picked up the dime. Carly asked her for her name and it was Fran.  Carly thought, of course it is.  It rhymes with Nan.  She smiled.

There were a few people in the shop at the time and Carly told them to hold down the fort.  She was going to walk Fran to her car.  So she took her hand and made sure she made it safely into her car.
When she got back in and back to the counter she said to the next customer, who had been patiently waiting, “Remind me of your name”.  The customer said “It’s Nan”.

Carly said “Excuse me?  What?”

The woman said “It’s Nan.  That’s my name”.

Carly thought, of course it is.  It’s Nan!  She smiled.

We hear you Nan! We love and miss you!