Grandma's 88th birthday

For her 88th b-day (11/28/08), Grandma really wanted an Elvis impersonator. They'd had one at my Dad's 50th, and she LOVED it! So we did it. And we had a marvelous time. And Grandma had a wonderful, wonderful time.

The entire video will be made available to the siblings soon (about 40 minutes of Elvis and Grandma and dozens of her friends and family).

For now, here's Happy Birthday . . . at Grandma's final birthday party. What a tribute.

Remember Grace

A dear friend and poet wrote something quite beautiful about our wonderful Grace and what she--a mother herself--is attempting to learn from her. It's called "Remember Grace." Chandra only met Grandma a couple of times and only when her then oldest son, Chaetrian, was very young. But Chaetrian remembers Grandma very, very fondly. He was probably no more than five when she met him. She took time to know him. Chandra tells me she had a impact on her as well. 

On all of us.

Here's what she says about it. 

---

Hey there.

I wanted you to see this....it a poem I wrote about your grandma and what I'm attempting to learn from her. I know it doesn't capture her....I didn't even know her that well, but she still has an impact. 

Thanks for sharing her with me and letting me know her (and you too)  

:)

Chandra

----

Here's the poem. 

Wow.  Thank you, Chandra.

--Shannon

---

"Remember Grace"

Over the phone,

a heartbroken friend thinks back,

“she used every minute of her life,”

the words attempting to capture

a personality that couldn't be contained.

She is gone

but leaves flamboyant trail markers

to guide us her way.

An obvious kind of sign post

for a life lived

full of

loves,

loses,

babies,

and dancing.

Grasping a small boy's hand,

bending down to see his eyes,

talking about cars, fishing, bugs--

things she knew were ageless

and that little boys were experts on.

Instead of ignoring,

she embraced him,

challenging herself to know and question and live and honor.

My mind is distracted.

I think of others,

so often encountered in this lifetime

who flit by,

blowing minor infractions into a darkened cave,

energy zapped and dispersed without any real gain.

Clouds rolling on the horizon

remind me to stay present,

remain here.

Let Grace guide me in my walk,

pointing out the iridescent intangibles

often over looked.

Telling me her tales of beginnings and ends.

Reminding me that these seemingly trivial details

matter more than anything in the world.

I feebly grasp her loveworn hand and walk on.

--Chandra Lewis-Qualls

Video Tribute

Tribute by Sylwester Zabielski (MA student) and Luca Morazzano (PhD student), Texas A&M-Commerce

Video Tribute (ready for viewing)

We have video!

I'll make it available online as soon as I have a version for that. We do have a DVD ready now, however. I'll bring that when I come tomorrow afternoon. 

At 8:30, my fabulous graduate students finished up a three-minute tribute filled with still images--several I had hanging on my walls here at the house and a number Jason made available to me last week (link below). Others you guys sent very recently in response to yesterday's request. Thanks, everyone! I forwarded everything to Luca and Sylwester, who worked all day on this video tribute. It is lovely! Unfortunately, everything you sent didn't make it into this particular video. They had some trouble with some of the images, deciding that a handful were just too grainy for them to use. (my standards are a little lower, so I would have used them but . . . I actually wasn't working with them for most of the day, so I couldn't make the case for the images they felt they couldn't include. Instead I spent the day in meetings and class and tying up some ends in preparation for being away again)

In any case: We have a video ready to roll!

By November 2009: We’d like to work on a longer, more robust film about Grandma’s life more generally. A sort of video memoir. I’m going to bring down some flip cameras and maybe we can record some footage of people telling stories about grandma. We can collect more images and gather more footage over the next several months.

My thought is that we can share that video project at Thanksgiving 2009, with the hope that we might couple the family celebration with a celebration of grandma’s life to coincide with what would have been her 89th birthday.

We can include some footage from family movies, stories, tributes. I think it will be wonderful.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Ahead of where we need to be. 

The important thing for now is that have a video for this series of events that I think everyone will find quite moving. I have an incredible team up here!

Also for tomorrow/Saturday:

It is still quite possible to put together a much less slick follow-up to this tribute, so keep those images coming. Tomorrow night I can also post some of the images you sent to our blog here. 

Beyond that:

It would be great to keep this tribute going. Keep those images coming. Keep those stories coming. We'll keep the blog rolling and meaningful. The stories and artifacts collected here can also help our video memoir along, which we'd like to share November 2009. But they also keep us in touch with one another. 

So signing out now (been in meetings and class all day and until about 45 minutes ago, so I guess I better do at least one load of laundry so I'm not a complete mess when I arrive). I’m flying in tomorrow at 2:30. I’ll go straight to CC Funeral Home. 

Love,
Shannon 

Share Something About this Amazing Woman

NOT the video. The video in progress will be much slicker and more robust. I have some very good and smart help up here in Commerce and, via the magic of Web 2.0, in Austin and down in Corpus. Just wanted to share a few of the photos I have to entice others to do the same.

Share them via email, an image sharing program like photobucket or picasa, or some other method that'll get them here fast. More suggestions at the next post.

Share Photographs (and other artifacts)

Do you have any photos, video footage, audio footage, or other artifacts you can share with us? We'd like to include these images in the video tribute we have in development. We'd also like to make those albums available to loved ones, perhaps via this blog.

Share those by:

1. scanning and uploading images to a program like Photobucket or Picasa or another image sharing program (these two are free).
2. posting the link here (use the "comment" button below)

Or you can email them to me at cartershannon@gmail.com or clic4u@gmail.com or shannon_carter@tamu-commerce.edu

Or send them to me via my home address. I'm a little concerned about going this route because they may not arrive in time.

Share Something About this Amazing Woman

Share her Favorites

What can you tell us about some of Grace's favorite things? what does she love? This can include events, places, people, or things? Anything really. She loves so much. What's her favorite movie? songs? things to do? decorating tips? How many walls must be removed before she's determined the space has enough space and the right look? Favorite celebrity? Comedians? world leaders? leaders in faith?

List those here, and we'll make use of them in developing this heartfelt tribute.

Share Something About this Amazing Woman

Share Stories


What are your favorite stories about Grace Carter? What do you love most about her? How do you want her to be remembered?

Share those with us here, and we'll work to bring those into our video and organize them for our blog.