Mémère

Polaroid gave me some important things.  Two of those are Bethany's name and my grand mother name.  I worked with someone who's daughter was named Bethany.  We worked together on a Holiday party.  I heard the name that day and pretty much was sold on the name over any other one we talked about.  Fortunately Rod agreed, because this event was before I met him.

Mémère comes from my friend Kris (Priscilla).  She was a Mémère when I worked with her and she was a damn good one.  She is of French Canadian descent and this is what they call the grandmother.  It has such a wonderful sound and of all the names I contemplated it seems to work for me.  I knew almost since I heard Kris use that name that if I were ever to become a grandmother, that was the name I wanted my grandchildren to call me.  Truth be told, she will call me whatever she chooses, but if the parents refer to me by Mémère, we stand a better chance.

She is only 6 days old and I have described the name and it's pronunciation to many people so here is how it is pronounced,  MEH May.  A lot of people try to pronounce mere like the French say mother but there is no R.

It is interesting, this naming of the grandmother.  We called my grandmother Mama, but our first cousins called her Dody and everyone else called her Miss Jo.  It was very confusing as a child.  We called our other grandmother Grandma Katie.  I often wondered why we did not call Mama, Grandma Jo or Grandma Josephine.  We called my one grandfather, Grandpa, because the other one died before we were born.  That made more sense.

So who knows if Mémère will stick but I really like the sound of it and the anticipation of Sarah Hazel Swartzbaugh calling me that one day, melts my heart once more.

Typing this post also helped me find out how to type accents acute and grave ; )