VeVa Hicks, my Great Grandmother of no relation, and how she came to me

My Grandmother was born into a hospital and left.  Harry and Elizabeth (Bessie) Mack chose her to be their daughter.  They named her Mildred Lucille Mack.  Elizabeth's cousin and her husband also chose a baby girl for their own.  They named her Velma.  MyMom and PopPop took Velma home to live in the city.  Harry and Bessie took Mildred home to live in the country.  Elizabeth became ill and Harry moved the family to the city to be closer to family and medical care.  They moved into a house across the street from MyMom, PopPop, and Velma. 

When my grandmother was seven (or perhaps 14; my mother and I remember the story differently) Elizabeth passed from this earth.  MyMom stepped in to help Harry raise Mildred.  The story I heard was that MyMom stepped in out of obligation.  Providing the basic necessities a girl needs, but not much more. 

VeVa and Elmer Hicks lived next door to MyMom and PopPop.  VeVa was Elmer's second wife and a decade younger than MyMom.  She was the Fairy Godmother to MyMom's wicked stepmother.  Of course neither is an entirely accurate description, but it makes things easier to imagine. 

I grew up knowing VeVa as my Great Grandmother.  I never knew the difference.  My Great Grandmother... She visited every state, and every continent.  She lived to be 101.   Born February 12, 1894.  She told me stories of snuff boxes, the great floods, panning for gold, and the necklace made of her grandfather's buttons from his civil war uniform.  She made sour cherry jam.  She spent a lifetime bowling.  She donated blood to the red cross every chance that she had.  For her 90th birthday she wanted to go skydiving.  At the age of 76 VeVa had a hip replacement.  This in itself is nothing... old ladies have hip replacements all the time. What is unusual is how she broke her hip.  The story I was told (by her) was completely VeVa.  She was sitting on a porch in the summer doing needlework (or at least pretending to).  In truth she was watching the kids in the lot across the street play baseball.  She decided that sitting on the sidelines was what an old lady would do.  She crossed the street and took her place at the pitchers mound.  I never saw VeVa in anything but a dress and pumps.  She was wearing pumps that day.  She planted her foot and threw a pitch.  Her pump stuck in the soft earth.  Her body turned, but her hip didn't.  Amazing woman.

My daughter Claudia was born on September 25, 1995.  Just a few days later she made her first outing to the funeral home and then the cemetary.  VeVa was laid to rest peacefully next to Elmer in the last days of September, 1995.  My Great Grandmother of no relation. My family.