Grammy Robin is Extraordinary

When I was 4 years old, my parents split up. (Mom, stop reading now. Or stop feeling guilty now. I know it's only been 33 years, so it might be too soon to say, but really, I think I'm going to turn out alright, despite the divorce. I love you Momma!) Anyway, after my folks split, my dad and I lived in the same town as my gram. She was a phys. ed. teacher and I spent a lot of time at her house, after school and overnight, and sometimes went to school with her. But the most important and greatest part was that beginning when I was five years old I spent every summer with Gram at our family's Camp on Lake Ossipee in Freedom, New Hampshire.
Here's a picture of me with my gram on the dock at Camp a few years before I started spending my summers with her. It's true, I was a funny looking baby.



During the week it was usually just Gram, my Aunt Raetha (who is 9 years older than me and the youngest of her generation) and me. The whole extended family, including one or both of my parents, would come on the weekends. I think that I'm very lucky to have had all those summers with my gram. I could certainly write volumes about our long summer days, waking up each morning to find Gram in her housecoat with her coffee watching the Today Show, learning to swim and dive, picking wild blueberries, going to ceramics class, begging to ride on motor boats with Rae and her teenage friends, hanging the laundry, playing with my best summertime friend, Ann Kelly, skinny dipping on hot nights, eating camp spaghetti and Welsh Rabbit and, especially, the way the air smelled like pine and ferns in the heat of the day and the particular way a single boat would sound when it created waves at dusk. None of that tells you about the kind of woman my gram is and the influence she has had on me.

Gram (aka Robin or Priscilla, though her birth name was Joanne Priscilla Chick), has five children, Cindy (my mom), Sally, Tommy, Scott and Raetha. And she has 10 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. But really, anyone who has ever spent time with my gram knows that her family is much bigger than this, because she has an open and accepting heart, loyalty that knows no bounds and a home that always serves as a shelter for anyone who needs her warmth and kindness. With these superhero qualities, she has set a tone for the Stoddard family where guests quickly become family. And Camp, built by her dad when she was just a girl and where Gram retired to over 20 years ago, is something of a sacred place: a kind of temple for unconditional love, a safe harbor for fugitives, a place to lay it all down, go bra-less and not wash your hair. A place where you know the people love you no matter what and even if you act like a complete asshole (and boy, some of us sure have acted like assholes over the years and yelled and screamed at each other something fierce). And a place where everyone admires, reveres and deeply respects the beautiful matriarch of the Stoddard Tribe. My gram will be 86 years old next month. These days, I often notice and admire her easy going, laid back attitude and her appreciation for just being around and able to enjoy her family. She doesn't take anything for granted, she's active and very social and an incredible roll model for growing older. She's my hero.