Nothing beats growing up with your grandparents.
They are the keepers of our secrets, the bakers of our favorite cookies, and our haven.
We may have dozed off on their laps as children while listening to their stories, or we may have even gone fishing with them at a nearby pond.
Their love will live on in our hearts forever, as will their memories.
Michelle McDougal of Hallowell, Maine, like many of us, was close to her grandmother.
They were best friends who found solace and joy in one another’s company.
Outings with family, get-togethers, dinners, you name it! It was never complete without the two being there for each other at all times. Nana kept an eye on her grandchild, while Michelle was always by her side at all times.
Michelle was born on her nana’s 39th birthday, and their extremely close relationship began there.
The duo was able to celebrate 45 birthdays together.
But then came the news that Michelle’s dearest nana, who was getting on in years, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
According to her post on “Love What Matters,” Michelle’s grandmother passed away from cancer.
Michelle asked her nana to send her pennies from heaven on the last night they spent together before her passing.
“Nana, when you get to heaven please send me lots of pennies so I know you’re still near.’ She laughed and said, ‘Okay, Mit,’” Michelle wrote.
Not long after her grandmother passed, Michelle began finding pennies lying around the house, much to her surprise.
“Immediately after her passing, I started finding pennies. Not just a few, but dozens and dozens of pennies. Those dozens turned into hundreds and hundreds of pennies.”
Despite her surprise, she believed it was her nana’s doing and thanked her for every penny she found.
“I smile as I pick up each new one and whisper, ‘Thank you nana, I love you,'” Michelle wrote in her Love What Matters story.
Michelle began collecting pennies in a jar after discovering more and more pennies in unexpected places.
“I’ve found pennies in the strangest places. A room that was just vacuumed. In the shower. In a box that contained an ornament, I had given her. I chose to keep all of them. Stored safely in the largest old Mason jars I could find. I knew I wanted to do something special with some, but I wasn’t quite sure just what.”
Michelle’s grandma had passed away four years before, and she knew she needed to do something with the hundreds of pennies she had inherited.
“With my husband’s help I screwed together some old barn boards and started carefully gluing each penny,” Michelle wrote.
They glued the pennies together to form a heart in memory of her adoring nana.
“I quickly dug out a card she had given me and scanned it into the computer. My husband carefully traced ‘love and kisses Nana.’ As my Cricut machine printed the final touch. My eyes welled with tears, but my heart was filled with nothing but love,” wrote the lady.
She had no idea about the sacrifices her grandmother had made to help her parents raise her.
So when Michelle learned of her granny’s illness, she was heartbroken.
“… she fought hard and after 2 years was given a clean bill of health. So we were all quite surprised when the doctor said her cancer had come back and there was nothing they could do for her,” she wrote.
Michelle shared that while constructing this lovely memorial, tears streamed down her cheeks.
But love filled her heart.
Michelle has something beautiful that reminds her of her nana’s unconditional love, even though her granny is no longer with her.
Many of you know my penny stories and the significance of them. When my Nana started to get too sick to stay alone, I…
Posted by Michelle Gordon McDougal onSaturday, December 2, 2017
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