INGLEWOOD, Calif. — We all have those family members that have those amazing sayings like, “meekly wait and murmur not,” meaning be patient.
One SoCal family is honoring their grandmother on her 100th birthday by publishing all her sayings in a book.
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Jennifer Vassel is an author and the granddaughter of Victoria A. Kelly. Over the years, Vassel has fallen in love with the advice and witty sayings her grandmother has shared with her.
One saying reads, “Two heads are better than cocoa head.” What that really means is, two minds are better than one.
That is just one of the many sayings Kelly shares with her grandchildren and Vassel makes a point to hold on to each and every one of those words.
“She remembers everything and she takes me as her friend. She says not a grandmother, you is a friend,” Kelly said.
Kelly’s sayings stem from advice she learned from her own parents. But she also created some on her own along the way.
“’Money is not all, your soul is all.’ Well that means you don’t have to get anxious to get money, because it’s not all,” Kelly said.
In honor of Kelly’s 100th Birthday, Vassel presented her grandmother during a family party with her very own book titled, You Can't Catch Me!: 100 Sayings from a Jamaican Centenarian.
“I always tell her that she has a million-dollar brain and she has so much knowledge and wisdom. That’s why we were inspired to put the sayings together so that we could document what was exactly passed down to her,” Vassel said.
It’s a physical representation of the words Kelly is grateful to see passed down to another generation.
“Through the world everybody must have something to live on from their parents, so, that’s why I do that with her. Not she alone, all my grandchildren,” Kelly said.
Kelly’s granddaughter hopes the book will not only honor her grandmother but that it also shows her how much her words and her legacy means to this family.