boys could be found trying on high heels and she said at times the boys couldn’t decide if they wanted to be boys or girls. One weekend they made hollyhock dolls because Grandma had tons of holly hocks in her back yard. Another weekend there were body paints for everyone to experiment with and a ladybug weekend brought out the nature lovers in all. One weekend Grandma dug out all her old typewriters from the closet and for the day, they had an office. It was a fun time and something mom and dad would probably not let them do. A visit to Westside Park one afternoon to feed the ducks and check out the museum, found the granddaughters posing as queens of the castle. Grandpa Dick was always part of the fun, too, and off to the little car racetrack they would go. One day they admitted they didn’t know how to play marbles so Dick showed them all about one of his childhood pastimes. A patriotic weekend was planned one year and Stratman’s youngest son Neil, the grandkids’ uncle, was stationed in the Army in Iraq. She had emailed Neil about the weekend and what was planned. The kids had decided to blow up dozens of balloons – grandma conveniently arranged for a helium tank to be in the garage – and write messages of love and encouragement to the soldiers overseas. She arranged the time for the balloon release with Neil and on the day of the event, after the release, when the grandkids could no longer see the balloons, Neil texted how unusual it was because all these red, white and blue balloons were flying around in the sky where he was and the soldiers were finding some of them that had dropped down so they could figure out was going on. “What Neil did,” Stratman said. “Those kids were so surprised, they almost had shivers, I think.” Another neat thing the Stratman crew did one weekend was to draw names. Then a big white chair was set in front of the fireplace in grandma’s living room for each grandchild to take turns sitting. Then each child had to share their name and tell that person what it was they liked most about that person whose name they had and why they would like to be that person. No negative comments could be made. “After the one grandchild said why she loved the other person so much, the other kids could feed into it and give their positive remarks,” Stratman said. “It became a real positive exchange of bonding, even tears sometimes.” Another weekend Stratman wanted them to understand more about their upbringing and culture, so she took the kids to spend the day with her mom. Great-grandma made ice cream sundaes and she could see the connection they made to her past. ‘I think it really was special for those kids who looked forward to that weekend every year, they knew We would love to hear about who and what inspires you. they got together and it wasn’t at Do you know someone that Christmas with all the commotion,” should be featured in hervoice? Stratman said. “And that was why I didn’t want parents.” Every weekend was a favorite Submit to: hervoiceonline.com and every year, more projects and Got Inspiration? vMAKING MEMORIES continued on page 19 HERVOICEvNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018v15