Thursday, September 2, 2010

Grandma Lila


This is a photo of my Grandma Lila and Grandpa Levi on their wedding day, May 17, 1945. She passed away this week and gets to be with my Grandpa again. Ever since my Grandpa passed away in the late 80's, she would talk about him every day and their beautiful love story. It was a tale of true love at it's simplest and most beautiful form. I feel so lucky to have known her for all of these years and finally, her dream has come true, at long last, to be with the love of her life.


Around 1893, my great grandparents came to America from Lebanon and went on to have 10 children. My Grandma Lila was the youngest and last survivor of her family. My grandma had a twin sister named Lula and also within her immediate family were twin boys. Two sets of twins in one family! Needless to say, she will be and is greatly missed. Unless you know me, you would never know that I was Lebanese, I'm blonde with green eyes. But the Lebanese culture was and is a huge part of my life, especially the food. For me, Lebanese cooking is my ultimate comfort food and luckily, my mom has carried on so many of my grandma's amazing recipes.

And as many of you know, we named our daughter Lyla Belle, after my Grandma Lila. I'm so thankful that I get a special little reminder of my Grandma through my daughter every day.

That's it for now. Have a lovely weekend and be sure to give lots of hugs and kisses to your loved ones.

8 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I'm Syrian! Arabs representin'! My oldest brother is the one who got all the "Arab genes" in our family.

I love your story, my sitti and jiddo are the same, but we're lucky to still have them with us :)

Also, I work at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn. Check us out!

brooke @ claremont road said...

I'm so sorry for your loss. She sounds like she was an amazing woman who was very fortunate to have such beautiful love in her life.

nole said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. I lost my own grandmother about 6 months ago, even though she was ready to move on I still feel her absence. It's so wonderful that you were able to spend so many years with her – you must have some amazing memories! xoxo

Leslie @ every good and perfect said...

Thank you for sharing about your sweet grandmother - it brought tears to my eyes. I hope that you and your family are blessed with comfort, peace, and precious memories during this time.

Anonymous said...

Erica, So sorry for your loss.
In that beautiful photo of Levi and Lila, I can see some of the wonderful traits that went thru your mother, to you and now to Lyla.

jdavissquared said...

So sorry you lost your grandma. I'm glad she gets to be with your grandpa now though. What a lovely tribute!

My husband is part Lebanese too, and you'd never know it.

Make sure you head over to Real Moms Real Views and enter the give away for one of my personalized piggy banks for Lyla.

http://www.realmomsrealviews.com/2010/09/03/perfect-painted-pig-jdavissquared-giveaway/

Filipa said...

I'm so sorry for your grandmother, the way you talk about her is beautiful. And what a wonderful story about your grandparents! Sending you my thoughts!

wedding invitation kits said...

Your story brought tears to my eyes. The pictures are reminiscent of my mom's and my dad's when he was in training for WWII. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.