What's In A Name?

I've been thinking a lot lately about the family  heritage that Rebecca has inherited.  Thanks to my dad's hard work with geneaology, we know a lot more about my side of the family than we do Mike's.  But, Rebecca's middle name is half from each of her grandmothers.  If you don't know, her middle name is MaeAnn.  Mae is Mike's mom's middle name, and Ann is my mom's middle name.  It was really important to both of us to use family names in some way, and this was the perfect blend!

Sadly, me and Rebecca will never meet her Grandma Fernie.  Sandra Mae Rancore Fernie lost her battle to breast cancer in 1989.  I've been thinking about her more often lately since this is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Of course, there's people wearing pink everywhere and every talk show (which I'm watching a lot lately) references it on a daily basis.   From the stories I heard, she sounds like an amazing woman.  At least partially due to the trials and tribulations she went through due to the various shenanigans of her only son!!

Let's just say that Mike made his mother worry on a regular basis!  From riding his bike where he shouldn't have been, to jumping off the roof, to all sorts of more crazy things!  We often joke that Grandma Fernie had lots of chats with Rebecca before she came to us and filled her in on the payback that Daddy needs to get!

Here's her senior picture from high school:

Luckily, Rebecca has already been able to spend lots of time with Barbara Ann Palermo Purrington.  I've seen my mom be a Grandma to my neice and nephew and she is amazing at it.  Her grandchildren are lucky kids.  Mike, Rebecca and I were blessed to have her stay with us the first week Rebecca was home from the hospital.  She loves that little girl like crazy and I know she misses her.  We don't get to see her tons because they live a couple of hours away, but we're looking forward to a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house soon!

One of the things I look forward to seeing is Rebecca cook with my mom.  It was a big part of my childhood and it's become a tradition with my neice and nephew.  I've already told Rebecca about how when she's bigger, she will get to help Grandma make cookies and roll meatballs at Christmas.  Of course, cooking is not the only thing she will get from Grandma Purrington, but there are too many to list.  Most of all, she will be loved by a wonderful woman who I am lucky enough to call Mom.

I couldn't find my mom's senior picture, but here's one that I love of my mom at dance school.  We think she was around 10 years old:

So you can see that Rebecca MaeAnn Fernie is a lucky girl.  She has two amazing Grandmas, and I am so happy she takes a little piece of their legacies with her forever in her middle name!