there comes a time when you have to choose between family, and everything else. i choose family.
it seems like grandparents are the ties that bind families together, and when we lose one there’s risk of us all coming apart a little. This makes it even more important to put family first and reach out to them with both hands.
Roland family reunion, summer 1995
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we lost my Nanny (Sadie Elizabeth Bungay) Roland last week. we lost her smile and endearing personality, her ability to welcome anyone into her home like family (strangers, neighbours, friends of friends, etc.), her faith, her patience with her 10 children (and all 10 of them talking at once!!)/24 grandchildren/19 great grandchildren, her ability to sit back in a crowded kitchen and take it all in, her delicious baked goods (raisin bread, dates squares and butterscotch pie, oh my!), and her unending love for her family that drew us all together.
Nanny & Katie2, 1984
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“the kids”, May 2012
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she was a caregiver in all sense of the word, especially as a mother and later on as a caregiver for my Grampy Roland, who had Parkinson’s disease. She was a truly inspiring woman and had a big impact on my work with Parkinson’s caregivers. Always putting others needs before her own and never asking for anything along the way. She dedicated so much time to helping others that I wanted to spend some time helping her (in my own way, i.e. researching Parkinson’s caregivers and Alzheimer’s disease).
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Grampy and Nanny, May 1991
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People are often unreasonable and self-centred, forgive them anyway
if you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motive, be kind anyway
if you are honest, people may cheat you, be honest anyway
if you find happiness, people may be jealous, be happy anyway
the good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow, do good anyway
give the world the best you have and it may never be enough, give your best anyway
for you see, in the end, it is between you and God, it was never between you and them anyway.
– Mother Theresa
much love.
Nanny’s 80th birthday, October 2011
Kaitlyn Roland 