 Home | Communities | Kansas | Aberdeen Village | Ginny Graham “Ginny” Graham was not expecting a web site of her memoirs, but it has become a living history
In 1995, one of Virginia “Ginny” Graham’s granddaughters asked her to write her life’s stories for the family. Nine years later, Graham gave her family the gift they’d asked for, expecting it to be a keepsake read only by them. But her eldest grandson, Andy Graham, had other ideas.
He created a website for his grandmother’s memoir www.grannygraham.com“dedicated to telling the story of a truly great lady.” Graham never dreamed that anyone with an Internet connection would have access to the stories of her life and heart.
“I don’t have a computer,” said Graham, who makes her home at Aberdeen Village. “I never thought about that [a website]. He didn’t even ask me. I assumed he was getting it in book form.”
Graham gave the stories to her five children and their families during a celebration for her 80th birthday in 2004 in Breckenridge, Colo.
“That took me several years,” she said. “I periodically would sit down and write. When they said we’re all getting together to celebrate your 80th, that was my goal. That was my gift to them.”
Graham tells her story in down-to-earth yet poignant chapters that read like a good book. She shares memories from her childhood during the Great Depression and coming of age during World War II. But for the most part, Ginny Graham’s life story is a love story.
She met Warren Graham on a blind date after a fortune teller had predicted she would soon meet a “handsome, blond, blue-eyed man.” On their second date the following weekend, “We danced and held hands under the table. I was falling in love and he was, too.”
But the world was at war. When Warren, who was serving in the military, asked her to come meet him weeks later at a layover in Chicago, she hesitated.
“Did I know him that well? I went! I saw him but he didn’t see me. I watched him, studied him and knew I was really glad to see him, so I went up to him. I don’t remember exactly how many hours we had together, but we spent them all in a hotel coffee shop and lobby, then back to the station. It was very sad to say goodbye.
“It’s strange how one can know true love in any kind of situation, a war separating us as well as states. But even with crazy, short visits and letters, we knew we were meant for each other.”
She chronicles their journey to marriage and Warren’s call to seminary and the ministry as an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). That journey, illustrated on the website by maps and family photographs, was punctuated by the arrivals of their five children, moves to different churches around the country and finally, retirement.
“Life was always exciting with Warren. I never heard him say he was bored – he never was.” Warren died from cancer in December 1995. The couple was married for 49 years.
In the site’s closing pages, Graham shares some of her innermost thoughts about the love of her life: dreams she had of Warren after his death; dreams that left her sad, grateful and hope-filled. Then there was the day 2 ½ months after his death that she carried in a sack of groceries only to find a tag on it.
“It was a Christmas tag and it read: ‘To My Love,’ from Warren. Where did it come from? Warren was in the hospital during Christmas and I had moved in March. Anyway it made me feel good and somehow was a sign for me that I was doing all right.”
The website includes several of Graham’s paintings and drawings. She is an award-winning artist and has painted oil portraits of each of her 11 grandchildren. She still sells artwork today from her home at Aberdeen. Art is just one of many activities that keep her life “busier here at Aberdeen than I’ve ever been,” she said. She still travels often to see friends and family.
“I’m in good health. I’m very blessed and I know it more and more as I live here at Aberdeen,” she said.
This past Christmas, her oldest daughter, Judy, wrote in her holiday letter how thrilled she was to read her mother’s life history. She went on to say it got her to thinking about recording her own memories and urging her siblings to do the same.
“I think it sparked a little something there,” said Graham. She has gotten comfortable with the world reading over her shoulder as she adds new chapters to her story.
“Now I love the website,” she said. “He just surprised me with it. Andy said, ‘Granny, any time you think of something, I can put it in.’ I imagine I will [add to it]. As I think of things, I write them down.”
About Us | Communities | Giving | Site Map
|
Recent News
Art is Ageless
