Happy 80th to my Kindred Spirit

The other day, my Nani, called me and like normal we were talking about flowers. We were both so frustrated that we couldn't plant anything yet and that this Kansas weather was preventing us from doing the thing we love the most.

At the end of this conversation my Nani said "A bit of my soul is in you" and I replied "you are my kindred spirit".

Margaret Beth Hayes (Pinky, Mom, Nani, Bari) turned 80 this week.

She and I share a love of flowers. I wouldn't have guessed this would have been the case but something about flowers bring me closer to God, they bring me hope and joy and in my garden is where I feel the most serene.

My Nani is one of my best friends. We talk 2-3 times a week and while we try to talk about other things we often land of flowers. Our common thread, what makes us one in the same.

My Grandmother has lived a long beautiful life.

In her 80 years she has traveled all over the world, lived in India for a long period of time and was a ministers wife and teacher.

She loved teaching and when she retired took on the task of teaching all of us. She never missed a teaching moment. A chance to take us out the Santa Fe trail ruts on Highway 56, on a trip with her sister and Uncle Jack to tour where Native Americans live, she took us on adventures through her stories and love of a life.

Her favorite phrase is  "never let a good story get in the way of the truth" and that is how she lives her life.

I don't know if she actually covered herself in mud with her sisters after they dug a hole to China to feed the kids there their vegetables and had to walk home in their undergarments. So in an effort to be  "invisible" they covered themselves in mud singing "we are the mud sisters, the mud sisters, the mud sisters". And I don't want to know. The beauty and comedy of that story is one that will always stick with me.

My Nani is always up for an adventure, whatever it may be and she is the light of our family.

She is the ones that makes all love Christmas. Since I was a child I can remember getting letters from her on Dec. 26th that said "remember Christmas is Dec. 25th" I never told her that I could tell the "letters from Santa" were in her handwriting because it didn't matter.

Our Nani is strong, beautiful, eccentric, full of life and will probably out live all of us.

I know how lucky I am. I know how amazing she is and I know that having your grandma as your best friend may be strange but it's the truth.

Her soul is in me and she is my kindred spirit.

Happy Birthday, Nani. I love you.