Nancy Robinson
Ferris Robinson
One particular holiday decoration always makes me smile – even as I’m busy putting things away for next year. No matter how hectic things are with manhandling the Christmas tree and dealing with busted lights and picking up leftover tinsel from last year’s tree that made a trail down the stairs and through the bedroom and across the living room, everything stills as I unwrap the little red plastic poinsettia in its little red plastic pot and set it on the windowsill.
Activated by light, the little flower immediately begins to swish back and forth, back and forth, keeping the exact same beat like a metronome. In an instant, I’m transported back to the moment I was presented with this little hostess gift. Actually, all eight guests took this exact same gift home.
My mother-in-law, Nancy Robinson, wouldn’t dream of coming to an event empty-handed, so about eight years ago, she wheeled into the Dollar General on Broad Street and grabbed a handful of these appealing little holiday trinkets and gave them to everyone at the luncheon. Delighted, everyone took them home and as far as I know, these charming little nodding gifts are part of the holidays in several homes.
The instant the little flower nodded its head side to side and rocked back and forth, I thought how much the cheery little thing reminded me of my mother-in-law. A member of the Greatest Generation, Nancy has kept a smile on her face for over 96 years. And when there has been not so much to smile about, she smiles anyway.
Known for her beauty her entire life, she is one of the few women who remain perfectly gorgeous as a nonagenarian. Nancy would scoff at that compliment, but the picture in this article was taken in December 2022. Just saying.
I’ve always kidded her for making my role as a wife and mother impossible. The mother of six children, all rowdy, naughty and busy children, she cooked breakfast to order every morning, short order style. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Aging gracefully, she handed over her car keys six years ago, unprompted. “Ninety is too old to be driving,” she said simply, jingling the keys.
A voracious reader all her life, the Phi Beta Kappa Vanderbilt grad can’t see well enough to read anymore. And hearing is a challenge, too. Walking and even moving is not easy. She has pain in her body, and she tires easily. But this gal is still in the game, apologizing for not being “strong” when she needs to rest.
A poster gal for Thrive at Brow Wood, she is front and center for most of the activities offered, from bingo to karaoke. A couple of years ago, you could delete the word most in the preceding sentence and replace it with the word all. After decades of shuttling her sports-oriented children to football, wrestling, track and other events, Nancy found herself on the court for balloon volleyball at Thrive. When she hit her hand on her chair, she quipped, “I finally get to be the one with a sports injury.”
Hours after she was released from her doctor’s care after a recent infection, she dressed herself for the day, put on her lipstick, and made sure she was on the front row of the exercise class. Even though she didn’t really feel up to it.
The thing about Nancy is that you would never know if she is truly up to it or not. She nods her beautiful head and smiles her beautiful smile and somehow manages to make everyone around her do the same.
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Ferris Robinson is the author of three children’s books, “The Queen Who Banished Bugs,” “The Queen Who Accidentally Banished Birds,” and “Call Me Arthropod” in her pollinator series “If Bugs Are Banished.” “Making Arrangements” is her first novel. “Dogs and Love – Stories of Fidelity” is a collection of true tales about man’s best friend. Her website is ferrisrobinson.com and you can download a free pollinator poster there. She is the editor of The Lookout Mountain Mirror and The Signal Mountain Mirror.
