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When I was living in Albany, NY as a med student, my boyfriend and I drove to Virginia for the weekend. He had just lost his grandmother and was attending the services. I had never met her, so I stayed the weekend with Nanny and Poppy instead while he spent time with his family. At the end of the weekend, he was coming by Nanny and Poppy's condo to pick me up, and he was coming upstairs to meet them.
Nanny had a reputation in our family for being rather particular about her housekeeping, and liked it to be tidy at all times. The example I like to use when I tell others, is that she developed varicose veins in her legs purely from ironing. Some joked that when they went to visit her they were afraid to get up in the night to use the bathroom, because they might come back to find the bed made. We affectionately nick-named her "The White Tornado", which either referenced her white hair, or the white-ness/cleanliness she left behind, I'm not really sure which.
When David was on his way over to meet them, she had already been around the condo living room several times dusting the coffee table, fluffing the couch pillows, etc. While this was happening, Poppy and I sat in the living room reading, waiting for David to arrive. Poppy was in his red satin high backed chair sitting comfortably with a book in his lap and his legs crossed. On one of her final inspection rounds she paused in front of Poppy's feet and looked down at his loafers in horror! A small island of dust had gathered on the toe of each loafer, just beneath the tassles. In an instant, Nanny bent down and with the wave of the tissue in her hand, the offending particles were removed, and she was gone again, moving on to search out the next area of potentially hidden lint, dirt, or dust. Poppy barely glanced up from his book, peering over his reading glasses breifly, and then shrugged and went back to reading. I stiffled a giggle as I walked to answer the doorbell. I had just witnessed a touchdown of the White Tornado.
In loving memory of our Nanny and Poppy. I think of them often and miss them very much.
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