Kailyn Kaiser longs to talk with ‘Nana’ one more time

Kailyn Kaiser spoke with her grandmother at least every other day.

Their conversations meandered through a mosaic of topics — work, movies, life in general. Often, they contained a healthy dose of grandmotherly advice.

And every call ended the same.

“No matter what the call was about, it was always, ‘Love you. Bye,’ ” Kaiser remembers. “Even if it was just, ‘Hey, you need anything from the store?,’ it was always, ‘Love you. Bye.’ ”

On one rainy September afternoon in 2009, the two chatted before Nana, known by the rest of the world as Maryanne Humphrey, reported for her shift at the Circle K convenience store on Georgia Highway 5 in Douglasville.

Heavy rain and dangerous conditions from what authorities later called a 500-year flood across a swath of Georgia forced Douglas County’s schools to close. That meant a day off for the 16-year-old Kaiser.

However, the fact that she was grounded threatened to make it a day of just sitting around the house. Humphrey joked that as a grandmother, her word trumped a mother’s wishes. So, the two planned dinner and a trip to the movies, one of Humphrey’s favorite pastimes, for the next day.

The call ended with those familiar words. Neither Kaiser nor her Nana could have known it would be the last time they would speak them to each other.

That night, as Humphrey waited on customers, a man with dark clothes and a black cap walked into the store. Brandishing a pistol, he ordered Humphrey to empty the cash register. A struggle ensued and two shots rang out.

The bullets struck the 62-year-old Humphrey in the head and chest. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Just like that — in an instant — Kaiser’s life changed dramatically. She lost a grandmother, a friend and a partner in mischief.

Humphrey’s dry sense of humor remains with her, though. Kaiser chuckles when remembering a trip to a water park when she was a girl. It was during one of the summer trips she made each year to visit Nana in Kansas, where Humphrey lived for a short period before returning to Douglas County.

“My grandma couldn’t swim,” Kaiser recalled. “I talked her into going down a waterslide with me.”

When Humphrey reached the shallow pool at the end, she forgot to stand up as she had been instructed.

“She started drowning. They had to yell at her, ‘Ma’am stand up,’ ” Kaiser said, adding that it was her grandmother’s first and last trip down a waterslide.

Humphrey loved action movies and TV judge shows. She kept a variety of handheld games — Yahtzee, Battleship and others — handy.

Of course, movies — usually the latest Scooby Doo tale — were part of the summer visits. Nana made sure of that. She had a porcelain bank shaped like a bear with the words “Movie Money” painted on the side. When it was time to take in a flick, she’d dip in the bank and find enough to cover the tickets.

“She would put money in there even when I wasn’t there, just to make sure that when I did come, there was money to go see a movie,” Kaiser remembers.

Nana also made sure she attended high school softball games, doing her best to encourage, although she wasn’t always sure what was happening.

“She didn’t know anything about softball,” Kaiser said. “Being a teenager, I’d get mad with her.”

The last time the two were together, Humphrey visited for dinner and an evening of Monopoly. Kaiser remembers having spaghetti. She also recalls getting frustrated at her mother for helping Nana win.

“She ended up running out of money,” she said. “My mom had a lot of properties.”

When Nana landed on one of those spots, Kaiser’s mother would let her get by without paying rent.

“I was winning,” Kaiser said. “That’s the last memory I remember of her.”

Born in Richmond, Va., Humphrey twice walked down the aisle and into marriage. She later moved in with Kaiser and her mother, eventually relocating to Douglasville with them.

Humphrey worked a series of jobs at local convenience, grocery and drug stores. The jobs allowed her to meet new people, something Kaiser said Nana enjoyed.

While she lived with two brothers, Humphrey planned to move in with Kaiser and her mother later in 2009.

“My mom made a deal with her and was like, ‘If you quit smoking, you can move back in,’ ” Kaiser said. “My Nana ended up quitting smoking.”

But, the reunion was not to be.

Kaiser still has her grandmother’s number in her cell phone.

“It still says Nana,” Kaiser said. “I just don’t have the heart to erase it.”

And, yes, there are those times when she wants to dial that number and share the latest news or ask what she should do to fix an unwanted outcome.

“The birthdays, the Christmases — those are the days I wish she was here to celebrate with me,” Kaiser said. “She should be here for those.”

Now 31 and working for a property management firm in Pensacola, Fla., Kaiser has an 8-year-old budding softball star of her own. She says Brooklyn resembles her in many ways.

One of those is the way she ends phone calls. It’s become sort of a family tradition.

“You never know what’s going to happen and that could be your last call,” Kaiser said. “Always say ‘I love you’ because you never know what’s going to happen.”