The Tale of Two Elvas

Before Elisabeth was born in September of 2007, we were tossing around different names for her. Lisa had wanted to use the name Elisabeth for about as long as she wanted to use the name Alexandra. I did like the name, but at the same time I wanted her to have a middle name that would honor someone who was very important in my life, my Great-Grandmother Elva Brinkerhoff.

It wouldn’t be the first time that we used a family name. Alexandra’s middle name is Louise, which is both my Mother in Law’s and Lisa’s Grandmother’s middle name. For Lorelai we used Lisa’s Dad’s name, Lee. We did change the spelling to Leigh (Which just so happened to also be Lorelai Gilmore’s middle name in the TV show Gilmore Girls, which is where we got the name Lorelai to begin with.) so it would sound a little more feminine. When it came time to find one for Elisabeth, we thought that Elva had a good ring to it.

My Grandma Elva died when I was only 8, but I have vivid memories of her and her house on Smith Ave. in Richland. She was what a Grandma is supposed to be; sweet, kind, loving, and the ability to spoil any child rotten. My sister Heidi and I both had a very close bond with both her and my Great-Grandfather Jess. There are too many memories to list on this post, so I will just leave it at this: Nobody in the world could have loved their Great-Grandparents (Which of course are the ones pictured above.) more than Heidi and I did, and I believe that the feeling was mutual with them.

One thing that I will talk about though is the little white and red ceramic cups that are also pictured above. Grandma Elva would use these little cups to put Jell-O into. We would go over to their house, and chances were better than none that those little cups would be filled up waiting for us in her fridge. It was one of the true joys of my childhood to have Jell-O in those cups. Needless to say I was quite excited when about a year or two ago my Mother asked if I would like to have a few of the cups for my own.

You might be asking what this has to do with our little Elisabeth. I didn’t even think of the connection until about a week ago. You see, Elisabeth has to take medication to control her seizures and her infantile spasms. I won’t go into further explanation, since almost all of you read Lisa’s blog and know all about our little miracle. Well, the medicine she takes is something called Depakote Sprinkles. And when I say sprinkles, I mean it. They resemble the same kind of sprinkles that they put on sugar cookies. They do not dissolve in liquid, so the only way Elisabeth can take them is to eat them with yogurt or some sort of baby food. Since yogurt is her food of choice, that is what we usually use. And what do we put the yogurt and Depakote Sprinkles in? Yup, you guessed it, the Jell-O cups that my Grandma Elva used all of those years ago.

Ever since last week when I realized this, I have thought about my Grandma Elva every night when I give Elisabeth her medicine. I picture her up in heaven with that wonderful smile on her face while she looks down on her Great-Great-Granddaughter taking the medication that she depends on to make her life just a little more normal than it would be without it. And while I only have a few things in my possession from my Great-Grandparents, these are by far my favorite and most precious.