Tuesday, June 4, 2013

A McIntire

I wrote this blog about 2 months ago when my Grandma McIntire passed but never posted it!! I wanted to make sure and get it up on here before I posted anything else!!

I have always been extremely proud to be a McIntire. I come from an amazing line of ancestors (on both sides of my family) and I am so grateful and proud to come from such a great heritage from both my mother and my father's line of ancestry. Through the stories that have been passed down and even journal entries that I've been able to read I am constantly amazed and inspired by the people in my blood line. I always hope that bits and pieces of their characters and personalities were carried down and are a part of me. Thinking of them has even helped me to stand a little taller and do things differently knowing who I am representing with my name. I have to say that I am so lucky because this is true about both sides of my family - going down my mothers line as well as my father's, but right now I want to focus on the McIntires, especially my Grandma McIntire.

Her name was (is) Vivian Richardson McIntire and she was probably the sweetest most selfless person that ever lived. She always had a smile on her face and such a sweet presence. My amazing Grandpa McIntire was a fireball and I can imagine she was always the calming factor that he needed from time to time. Although my grandpa died when I was 12 and from stories and faint memories I know what a great man he was- I got to have my grandma for quite some time longer. She died at age 93, 16 years after my grandpa died. Up until about 2 years ago she was running around, living on her own and still so active and sharp. I can only wish for her kind of endurance and health! I think so much of her healthy body came from her healthy mind. She was such a positive and love-filled person. Always with a smile on her face and ready and willing to just laugh at anything. It was funny to see her and my dad like two peas in a pod this last little while when she lived so close to home. He could get her laughing like no other. Even in a rest home with a lot of sadness around her - when she first arrived she said that it was her goal to make other people happy. She said that if she saw anyone by themselves she wanted to talk to them and make them happy. In all the years I've known my Grandma Mac I never once heard her complain. And up until the last time I saw her she was smiling and so quick to giggle at anything. She also had a super silly and sometimes odd sense of humor, which was certainly carried on by my dad and I. I love that about her too!

Although my grandma has passed to the other side she definitely leaves a legacy behind her and such a strong example for others to follow. As my parents were going through her things they found a paper she had written her personal motto and "practice exercises" on. This was something she had written as a young woman and something she tried to live by everyday. They are such simple things, but truly sum up the kind of person she was and the kind of person I want to be. Here is what she wrote:


Practice Exercise
1. I will be as cheerful as possible
2. I will try to feel and act a little more friendly toward other people.
3. I am going to be a little less critical and a little more tolerant of other people, their faults, failings, and mistakes. I will place the best possible interpretation upon their actions.
4. Insofar as possible I am going to act as if success were inevitable and I already am the sort of personality I want to be. I will practice "acting like" and "feeling like" this new personality.
5. I will not let my own opinon color facts in a pessimistic or negative way.
6. I will practice smiling at lease three times during the day.
7. Regardless of what happens, I will react as calmly and as intelligently as possible.
8. I will ignore completely and close my mind to all those pessimistic and negative "facts" which I can do nothing to change.

Read once a day.

How awesome are these little things! It shows her attitude and outlook on life and if these were things we could all do everyday it would make all the difference. The great thing is that she truly did these things and put this into action in her life. She's an inspiration and I'm so grateful for her and all the other amazing examples I have in my life.