Millett's Mission: Grandpa and Grandma Griffin

When you think about things you are grateful for you begin to think about the people who had great influence in your life and the time you spent with them. Today, I'm thankful for my Grandpa and Grandma Griffin. I was lucky enough to live two blocks from them while I was growing up. It was always such great fun to go to their home. One of my favorite things about it was the old fashioned doorbell that you could pull down and create a rather shrill ring. But mostly I liked going there because I always felt loved, and that I was very important to them. They had over 30 grandchildren, but you never felt like you were any less important than anyone else in the family.

Robert Ernest Griffin and (Clara) Lucile Jones Griffin

(Grandma went by the name Lucile, I always thought the name Clara was beautiful and to this day wonder why she didn't go by her first name.)

Just about every summer we had a family reunion in the mountains somewhere, mostly Mount Graham, and while I'm sure it was a lot of work for the parents, for the grandchildren it was just a fun 2 or three days running around the mountains, getting dirty, eating good food, and fun family memories around a campfire. Every year Grandpa would tell us the "Skunk Story" in his best French accent, it never got old! As I've gotten older I really learned to appreciate how much my Grandparents thought family togetherness was important. I still remember my Grandma always smiling and saying, "Isn't it good to have all the family together?" It was sheer chaos most of the time but it was good.

Grandpa was a janitor and a bus driver at Thatcher Schools, so I managed to wave at him at least once a day, and occasionally got to ride on the school bus route with him. One time he purchased a very old small yellow school bus and got it running, he used to give us rides in the "Yellow Bomb" as it was nicknamed. He was fun to be around and he also worked very hard. He grew corn every year and we loved playing in his corn field, and we loved that he had a milk cow, so we got to make homemade ice cream quite a bit. I liked that he could be silly and have fun without caring what other people thought. As he got older, it was hard to see him slow down, but he still showed great love for his children and grandchildren.

Grandma always made you feel so special. She was never harsh or judgememtal and when people talked unkindly of others she often reminded them that we all have shortcomings and to be kind and give others the benefit of the doubt. When we were sick, Grandma would have us come to her house, lay a quilt on the living room floor, and she would sit on her sofa and rub our feet until we fell asleep. That always made you feel better. Grandma was also an AVON lady as they used to be called, she was so nice to let us play with all her lipstick and perfune samples, to this day I will never forget the smell of Sweet Honesty, my favorite scent as a young girl. As Grandma got older she developed Multiple Sclerosis and as the years passed she became bedridden. Whenever we would go visit her, thinking to lift her, we always left a little lighter and happier because of her. It was hard to see her just lying there, and to hear her tell us of her wonderful dreams that she had about doing normal day to day things like cleaning her house, but she never really let you see her sad. She was a great example of enduring to the end well.