A day of remembering and a day to recall the first book you knew!

Growing up was very difficult for me; a toxic home, bullies at school, and just an overwhelming sense of not belonging. So many people in my life have made me feel this way since a very early age, but there was always one person who I knew had my back and loved me unconditionally and that was my Nannie Ida. My grandma was my absolute favorite person in the world; it is because of her that I now have such an immense love for literature, art, as well as nature and wildlife. But she is why I still have my original copy of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue fish. It was "our book" and she always found a way to bring that book to life. Whether it was silly voices for the characters or the way she found the craziest facial expressions to use when reading it to me. But my absolute favorite part was when it came to counting out all eleven fingers on that silly character with the bowtie, because she always had me convinced that she had eleven herself. She was just a genuine pure soul in a world full of many cruel things. I loved her beyond measure and way beyond words, which is ironic since she had a way of crafting words into absolute symphonies. Poetry and painting were her favorite forms of expressing herself, especially in the last few months I had with her. In December of 2007 she sat me down for what would be the absolute worst conversation I would ever have, she had been diagnosed with stage four Pancreatic Cancer. I was only 11 at the time so not all of what she was telling me made sense, but I knew one thing to be certain and that was that I would soon be losing my person. I spent the next eight months always by her side and we made so many amazing memories. We took so many trips to the beach, and we painted while watching either Bob Ross or her personal favorite, Jackie Shaw. If we weren't painting and watching videos, then we were watching the VHS tape of Disney's Beauty and The Beast on loop because she knew it was my favorite movie. We watched it so many times that I am shocked my original VHS tape still works. But I knew our time was running out and that by now summer vacation was ending. Then the first day of school came and I was starting middle school, but that day turned into the day my world fully crumbled. On August 25th. 2008 my Nannie had been called away from this life and into the next.

As I write this post in honor of her and everything she had taught me, I cannot help but cry into my keyboard. It has now been eighteen years since my world crumbled around me, but I continue forward through this new world I live in. I have gathered the pieces of everything from before but there will always be that one very important piece that's missing. Nannie if there is a way for you to hear my heart or see these words and the life I have built then I can only hope for one thing, I hope I have made you proud and just know that I carry you with me in every step I take and every challenge I face, You will always be my sunshine and I will always be your baby!

Now a question for all of you book dragons out there, what is the first book you can remember? Feel free to share your favorite books from childhood in the comments and any sentiments around them. This is a safe space, so share your stories if you want and we can all cry into our keyboards together!