GRAND Magazine - February 2009 - (Page 26) Movin’ to the g’kids By Tracy B. McGinnis What are you waiting for? W hen BarBara Jordan heard her granddaughter say “Nona” for the first time, she was ready to leave Steubenville, Ohio, where she and her husband, Ron, had lived their entire lives—65 years, 37 of which had been spent in the same house—and move to York, South Carolina. “There was no planning,” recalls Ron. “She came downstairs and said, ‘Call the realtor; we’re moving.’” Barbara laughs. “We drove back and forth those 475 miles many times before we made the decision.” Barbara was a semiretired nurse who planned to look for “on-call” work in South Carolina; Ron had been retired from Weirton Steel for 10 years. “This was going to be a dramatic change for us,” says Barbara. “We were leaving friendships we’d had for 40 years. In a small town, we could drive down the street, spot a friend and go out for dinner on the spur of the moment. Here, in South Carolina, we don’t know anybody. But we have our little angels. “You get to see your grandchildren every day,” says Barbara. “Watch them grow, develop. Have a relationship with them and be a good influence in their growing up. The negative? My God, the heat!” 26 GRAND FEBRUARY 2009
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