This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Gift Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
My Nanna is one of the most unique women that I have ever met, she was an orphan brought out on a train from Scotland during the war. During those times there was panic and desperation surrounding many families. My Nanna was a small child and her family, put her on a train to Australia where she would be safe. She never met her real parents again, and was adopted by an older couple that loved and cherished her. She was brought up as an only child and always longed for a brother or a sister for a companion.
She has never dwelled on what could have been or who her real parents may have been. She accepts the fact that the people who adopted her are her real parents, even though they may not be related biologically. My Nanna had five children, and as they grew up they had an amazing twenty-four children between them. Over the years her children have had another thirty-four children, and some of their children have also had children. As you can imagine when we all get together there are enough people to fill a stadium.
Every year for my whole life we have had an amazing tradition, we call it Nanna’s party. It is usually held at a park, or large area and everyone who is related comes from near and far to get together. Australia is a vast place, and some of us drove for up to ten hours to attend. My Nanna used to give each of us a small gift. She would call out each of our names, and we would go up where she was seated and receive our gift. Our family grew so large she could no longer afford a gift for everyone, so she only gave gifts to the children, or her great, great grandchildren.
The gifts weren’t the reason many of us traveled so many miles to be a part of this tradition, it was the opportunity to meet with our family and relatives. To add to the fun we would all dress up to a theme. One year we had to go as fruit, another year we had to dress up like they did in the 1950’s and 1960’s and perform mimed songs on stage.
Now that I am a lot older I realize that Nanna was a very smart woman, through her insistence of having these parties she was keeping us all together. She was in fact giving us the opportunity to have the family closeness that was taken from her as a child. It cannot be said that anyone in our family of over two hundred, does not know whom they’re related to.
Our Nanna gave us a lot more than small gifts and dress up parties, she gave us a strong family unit that has stood the test of time for over four generations. That is a truly valuable gift.
