Grandma Sullivan

Thanksgiving 2008

There is just no one like your grandma. I’ve found this to be true through the years when I’ve visited both of my grandmothers. For this post, I want to speak of my Grandma Sullivan (my dad’s mother). Her full name is Sarah Naomi Robertson Sullivan and what a grand lady she is. To some she is Sis. Sullivan. To others, she is Naoma, Naomi, Grandma Nomi, Mom or just Grandma as my siblings and I called her. When we were little, we would beg to go spend time at her house during the summer. Each of us kids would take a week that was just ours with Grandpa and Grandma alone. We liked the special treatment we received one-on-one. Our breakfasts were always homemade country breakfasts complete with fried eggs, bacon or sausage and biscuits and gravy. Lunch and dinner were also country cookin’ treats! We always got to go by “Mac-Donalds” after church for an ice cream cone. Usually once during our week stay we got to “go to town” to buy some little toy or activity book. I bought quite a few paper doll books in my summers staying there. If we were lucky, Grandpa Sullivan would take us for a tractor ride, or if were even luckier, we’d get to drive his old Ford down country roads. Christmases were always a grand affair there too. Grandma would put up corrugated paper that looked like chimney bricks on the wall under her picture window and decorate with plastic Santas around the “chimney” since she didn’t have a real one. She proudly displayed all of our handmade gold macaroni ball ornaments on her Christmas tree too… only she called them “ointments”. :) Another favorite memory is her playing the piano in her old Pulleys Mill style way. She could also play a mean mandolin to accompany Grandpa and Uncle Donald when they all got to pickin’ and grinnin’. :) Grandma worked in the dietary section of the local hospital and so sometimes she had to go to work when we stayed with her. I always loved to see her dressed in her white dress and shoes and smell her hairspray and perfume when she got ready to leave the house. Another thing you need to know about Grandma is that she has a very soft heart for animals and especially strays. She has fed many a stray animal in southern Illinois with her scraps left from the table. Those strays lived like kings and queens. She has a very big heart, and I have been privileged to be her first grandchild and her “Christy” for many years.


A new era has come to Grandma’s life. You see she now has Alzheimer’s disease. Ronald Reagan called it the “long goodbye”. She was diagnosed with this dreaded disease about 5 or 6 years ago. It started with simple things like finding her purse in the linen closet, but it has progressed to her not being able to process simple questions and at times thinking her parents are still living when they died in the 80s. Grandma has been staying with my mom and dad for the past week and a half because my grandpa is in a rehab center after suffering a mini-stroke. I am fortunate that she still knows me. Her eyes light up and she says, “Oh… hi Christy!” with a sweet smile on her face. When she sees pictures of Courtney at my mom’s house she thinks it’s me though. She says, “Oh that’s a good picture of Christy… but who’s that baby with her?” What she is looking at are pictures of my Courtney and her cousin Gentry. One thing that hasn’t faded from her memory is her love for God and her knowledge of all the old songs. She attended church with us both services this past Sunday and she sang out strong on the songs she knew. Sometimes she would switch from lead to perfect alto. Amazing! And she asked a couple of times, “Is that Stevie (my dad) on the piano? He sure sounds good. I’m so proud of him.” And I know she was proud to hear my brother singing a solo with the choir as well. At the close of my Uncle Larry’s message Sunday morning he was saying something like “create in me a clean heart oh God” and Grandma said, “Oh yes Lord!” God knows how many prayers she’s prayed for all of us and how deeply she has cared for us. May we love her just as much and hold her close until the Lord has better plans for her. Until then, keep on singing Grandma. We’re singing right along with you. Thank you for taking this journey with me. Blessings and peace to you.