The O.D. (Original Diva)

When you look up the word "diva" in the dictionary it says, "a usually glamorous and successful female performer or personality."  Now, I know some people use the word in a deragotory manner, but I love the word diva, and I always mean it as a compliment. To me a diva is a chick with great style, great confidence, and great skills.  The people in my life that I think of as divas have a variety of careers and are fabulous from my point of view.  My friend Leslie is a diva doctor.  She makes a stethoscope look good. My friend Regina is a diva real estate agent, working her shoes and her sold signs with equal grace.  My friend Patricia is a diva engineer.  She takes her fabulous to the MIT reunions, people, and in great heels!  I'm a fan of the diva in every way and my love for diva-ness began at an early age. 

Allow me to introduce you to the Original Diva in my life, my grandmother, Eula Mae Baptiste.  

As you can see from this picture, she had fabulous covered even as a grandmother. When I think of her, I remember a woman who had a standing hair appointment with her beautician.  She could put together a perfect outfit with ease, complete with accessories.  She looked even better when she would slide on her sunglasses as she slid behind the wheel of her white on white Lincoln Mark V.  She had the style and confidence covered for sure. As for her great talent, it was being a mother.  My grandmother raised seven incredible children.  Even though she and my grandfather never went to college, she prioritized education, demanding her children speak proper english, no slang or bad grammar allowed, and study faithfully. The result, was seven kids that went to college and several who went  on to graduate school.  She taught them what it meant to be family and how to love each other, and her legacy lives on in her children and grandchildren and the love they have for each other.  She instilled her children with values, dignity, and a sense of self-worth that has passed on to the next two generations to follow. 

Last weekend we celebrated my cousin's high school graduation.  She is in the next generation of our family, a great-grandchild to my precious grandmother and her nickname on her volleyball team...Diva.  When I saw that, I was thrilled, thrilled because I know my grandmother lives on in the fabulous women that are her progeny.  Let's do her proud, divas!