On October 5, my countdown began: 30 days until my 30th birthday. In honor of this, on each of the 30 days leading up to my birthday I will recount one memory from the past 30 years… either one that has helped define me, one that makes me laugh, one that makes me think, one that encourages me…  or maybe a little of everything. If possible, I will post a photo to go along with the memory.

It’s my 30/30/30 Project: 30 years. 30 memories. 30 days.

Here is my memory for Day #17:

I have so many wonderful memories of my Nana, who passed away a little over 2 years ago at age 89.

This is one of my favorites…

Running through the sprinklers in Nana’s back yard was a favorite summer pasttime. One hot summer day, when we were probably about 6 and 4 years old, respectively, Audrey and I must have forgotten our bathing suits… but it was too perfect of a running-through-the-sprinklers type of day to pass up.

So Nana took two pairs of her underwear – real Granny panties – put a pair on each of us, and clothespinned them at our shoulders. Voilà!

I don’t know what made me and Audrey laugh more, the joy of the refreshing sprinkler or seeing each other enveloped in flesh-colored Granny underwear.

I know there’s a Polaroid of that day somewhere (over the years, I remember seeing it at Nana’s house), but unfortunately, I don’t know where it is now.

When I think about Nana’s old house, though, where she lived until I was about 8 years old, I remember the photo of me and Audrey that she had hanging on the wall of her kitchen. I am sure she had other photos of us – and other people – in the house… but for some reason, this is the photo that always comes to mind when I think of Nana’s house.

It is one of those posed Sears-type photos taken in the summer, probably around 1983 (little help with this, Mom?). Nana lived in a few different apartments from the time she moved out of her house to the time she passed away… and I’m sure this photo was somewhere in those apartments… but I’ll always remember it best on the kitchen wall of her little yellow ranch house.