my sweet grandma.

yesterday i spent the day with my family remembering my grandmother.

she passed away on january 1st.

her service was lovely...the scripture, the songs, the memories that were shared... i loved it.

my parents and sister made a slide show of photos of her life that was so fun to see.

she had 17 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren.



she was always kind & cheerful.   she was quiet and reserved.  

she always looked put together... make-up on, hair done, jewelry and pretty clothes... always.

even her jammies were fancy.

her skin was so soft.

she always sent me birthday cards that had were girly and had glitter on them.
she never forgot.

 
we will forever joke about her saying "it's a new recipe...i don't know if it's any good"
she baked a lot.

her laugh was a snort so we loved to get her laughing as much as possible.

 

almost all of the family was there to celebrate her life.
i loved seeing my cousins again.
it's kind of a strange thing to be the grown ups now.
we spent all those christmases together as kids and now we are the ages our parents were then!
i love them all so much.
funerals and weddings remind of us those who made us who we are...the beginnings.
family ties run deep.
i didn't want the day to end and have to say goodbye to them again. 

annie made a little shrine of her own when we came home.
she placed her flowers from the service in a jar & scotch taped grandma's picture to it for her bedside table.
we tried to talk very openly about the service, the casket, the family, the tears.
who knows what they will remember from that day but i think it will be posititve. 

i loved my grandma.
i will miss her always being with our family.
she was there...sitting on the couch while the kids ran all around her.
sitting at the dining room table while meals were prepared around her.
i will miss her there with coffee in the mornings at my moms.
she didn't say much ("well meg...what's new with you?")
we were often afraid that waffle would knock her down.

i knew that she loved me.
and that i was important to her.
that means the world to me.
she made sure we were okay, taken care of, thought of and worried about.  

she was kind and loving and proud of all of my cousins and me.

i am so grateful to have had her in my life this long.