Vance-Aikins said the city sent many different iterations of the bench and let the Vance family choose the final design. JD Vance and his wife, Usha, also weighed in on the design, according to Vance-Aikins, but they could not be there for the dedication and ribbon cutting.
“We all had an input and we all collaborated,” she said.
Credit: Bryn Dippold
Credit: Bryn Dippold
She added her mother was the “neighborhood mom” to those who grew up in the Miami Park area from the 70s to the early 2000s.
“She was ... the one who always had an open door and a listening ear for everyone,” she said.
Middletown City Councilman Paul Horn said there were two reasons why he first proposed the memorial bench back in December 2024. The first was to celebrate success out of Middletown.
“We need to always celebrate that, no matter how our opinions are,” he said.
His second reason was to honor grandparents who take on the role of parent to their children’s children.
Credit: Bryn Dippold
Credit: Bryn Dippold
“Why are they doing that? Because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
“This is for the guardian, the grandparent, (who) is raising their children’s children, to come sit here and even just reflect here and say, ‘I can do this,’” he added.
Middletown Mayor Elizabeth Slamka said, “Mrs. Vance was not a member of Congress or a decorated veteran nor president of a grand organization ... she answered the call of being a caring grandmother.”
Bonnie Blanton Vance, who died in 2005, was a native of Kentucky who moved to Middletown with her husband in the 1940s. In Vance’s book “Hillbilly Elegy” he credits “mamaw” with grounding him while growing up while his mother struggled to get her life on track.
“It is not an easy road for grandparents, but it is an honorable one,” Slamka said.
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