Aleksandra Safronova Graybeal AKA "Shirley" Graybeal AKA Mutti

Aleksandra Mikhailovna Safronova Graybeal is my grandmother. A beautiful petite Ukrainian woman with a huge heart and spirit. Tripp's middle name Aleksander is after her. We called her Mutti, which is German and my dad called her that. I think about her a lot when I work in the garden. I remember being 3 and we were living with my grandparents in Kathleen, GA. We had a big garden. I remember snapping peas, digging for potatoes, and shucking corn. I also remember eating her homemade pickles, blueberry and strawberry muffins(out of the package), and her chicken and mashed potatoes- YUM!! She would wear a scarf around her head and work out in the garden, growing huge tomatoes from plants that were taller than her! I remember climbing a pile of hay in the barn and literally getting ants in my pants, which were blue corduroy with alphabet letters on them. I remember that I got stung by a bee for the first time while I played on the wooden fence in my little sundress. I remember finding a men's razor in the bathroom and slicing my thumb when I tried to shave it with toothpaste. I also remember sleeping in sleeping bags in front of the tiny TV and watching the old black and white King Kong movie- a real snoozer back then.

Funny how your earliest memories are so vivid and vague at the same time. Like, I have memories of times when I'm very young, but I absolutely have no memory of my father living with us... at all. And there were two more kids after me! You may find that sad, and I do too, but it's kind of funny to me. How does that even happen? I mean, sure it means that he probably wasn't there a lot and when he was, he just didn't interact with me much. But I guess I didn't pay very much attention to him either. I was always drawing or outside playing and it's a true miracle that I survived- no offense Mom :) My grandfather and Mutti were blessings for us and good examples to me. After my mission, I met a guy at a church dance named Daniel. He was from around Macon, Ga and I attended his ward down there and when I introduced myself in Relief Society, some of the women asked me if I was related to Ron and Shirley Graybeal. Ron is my grandfather's name, but Shirley?? What you talkin' bout Willis? I went home and asked my mom and she said that Shura was a nickname that my grandfather called my grandmother and that instead of Shura, people called her Shirley. Bwahaha!! That made me laugh and I was really relieved to hear that too.

Mutti would tell us that we shouldn't waste our money on McDonalds because we would just poop it out later. She ALWAYS smelled of garlic! Maybe that's why I love garlic so much. She lived an extremely hard life as a child and as a young woman and mother in her first marriage. She had an article about her printed in a magazine called the Ensign. Click on this title to read it: On the Wings of Prayer

This is a photo of my dad's family-

 Ronnie, Aleksandra, Ronnie Jr, and "Deanie"

Doesn't my grandfather look like Vincent Price? 

Her father Mikhail

Her mother Anna