Charlotte Ann Shields

Thank you to everyone that was able to make it today your attendance is very much appreciated. Today we will do our best not to be sad, but rather rejoice in the fact that, our Nanny, Charlotte Shields, is finally reunited with her husband, “Big Joe”, after 41 years of being apart. Today we will honor her and celebrate the life of a talented, strong willed woman that put herself through nursing school and spent a lifetime caring for others as a Registered Nurse. A gifted lady of many talents that loved music and to sing and perform. Carnegie Hall in New York City even had the privilege of having our grandmother perform there. I take solace in knowing that she is not struggling to breathe anymore and she can belt out any notes she wants to and is now singing with the angels in the grandest choir. Our Nanny was a loving mother and caring grandmother as well as great grandmother to us all. Her family meant the world to her and she would do anything for us. The thing that I will miss the most about her is her laugh. It was infectious and a laugh like no other. I remember as a kid when I would be walking to her house I could hear her laughing from 2 houses away while she was sitting in her recliner cracking up at one of her programs. Just hearing it would make me start to laugh before I even made it to her door and it still makes me smile to this day. I’ll miss her high pitched silly voice she would make when she would say our names repeatedly (she did this with all of the grandkids). She was such a fun and funny lady. Not everyone can say their Grandmother would tell them to, “Go play in traffic!” when we were kids and know she was just playing with us. Or when us heathen grandsons of hers was in the car with her and if someone cut her off she would tell us “Robert Michael or Jimmy Dell, give them the bird!” as she should have because a lady wouldn’t do that sort of thing herself. She was definitely one of a kind. The good lord broke the mold when he made her. Nanny was strong in her Catholic faith and she did her best to rub off on us grandkids and drag us to church with her whenever she could and now looking back I wish would’ve gone a little more and paid a little more attention while I was there. I think we take time for granted. What I wouldn’t give for one more chance to go to mass with her. We all get stuck in the daily hustle and bustle of daily life and we forget to make time for those who helped shape us into the people we are today. Family gatherings have been been diminished to funerals and tragic events. Holiday traditions have faded away as our older generation has passed on. In honor of Nanny, we need to rekindle our holiday traditions and do a better job of getting our families together. That’s all she ever wanted was to have all of her “babies” in the same place at the same time so she could enjoy them. I think that’s something she would’ve loved and something that would make her smile and get her to say her trademark, high pitched, “Oh yesssss!”. We love you Nanny, we will miss you and your children miss you dearly. Give Pawpaw a big hug for us all and sing your heart out. Can’t wait to see you again.....