my grandma

Today is a sad day for our family.  My Grandma passed away one year ago today.

I'm lucky to have some amazing women in my family.  I have some fabulous Aunts who are like second Mom's to me.  I have several gorgeous cousins who are successful, fun and amazing.  And of course there is my Mom and sister, my two best friends and I don't know what I would do without them.  Disclaimer:  all the men in my life, you're pretty fabulous too!  

But my Grandma?  She took the cake.  She was such a wonderful, caring, loving, generous, honest, lovely woman.  We used  to talk all the time.  At 90 years old she was still living on her own and we always talked about what we were cooking.  She was usually making beans and a cake or pie or something.  She could take a little of this and a little of that and make a mighty fine meal.  She always made more than just she needed and would then pass out portions to her friends in her apartment building.  She would buy roses, keep a few for herself and then pass out the rest to her children and then to the women in the apartment.  And then we'd talk about how we were happy to be us.  Happy that we are who we are and not wanting for anything else.  She'd ask to speak to my boys, even when they were little babies, telling me that they'd hear her voice over the phone and they'd know she loved them.  Yes, it was true. 

Her very best ability was to make each and every one of us feel as if they were the special one.  She could make them feel that even though she had 7 children, 16 Grandchildren, and 7 Great Grandchildren, they were her favorite.  Probably because she said it.  When I was younger we used to write back and forth.  I still have many of her letters.  Letters that she'd write the date and time at the time.  Letters that she usually started writing at 2 or 3am and tell me all about her day.  She'd tell me about the people who would come to visit or who would call on the phone.  I'd hear about what she was cooking even back then and what Grandpa was tending to in the garden.  I felt special.  But little did I know, she made everyone else feel that special too.  And I think that's fabulous. 

Twenty years or so ago she and my Grandpa would come to stay with us when my parents went out of town.  They'd stay for about a week and care for us as my Mom and Dad would.  She made donuts...homemade donuts.  I will never forget that.  We lived on a small bay then and she went ice skating with us and made snow angels.  We built a snowman, with her help of course, and we were looking for what we could use for the eyes, nose and mouth.  We found the most perfect, round, brown pellet-looking pieces that we picked up and placed on our snowman's face.  Later did we find out that they were rabbit droppings!  We still laughed about that recently!!  She would roll down the grassy hills with us and climb into play tents with her Great Grand kids.  And these are only my memories.

She had her honest moments too.  We've all heard her say how we're "looking much better now" and how our "butt doesn't look as big in these pants as opposed to the pants we wore last week".  These phrases usually came with a little pat on the bottom too.  We took it as a compliment and laughed as we shared it with each other.

My Grandma...so sweet and kind.  And today, this one year anniversary of her passing, we experienced the most beautiful weather yet this year.

This is a look down our street.  If you read my last post you'll see it looks quite different today.

 

I don't think there's a coincidence that the weather was as beautiful as it was today.  Not a chance.  Just like I don't think it was a coincidence when we saw the most beautifully vibrant sunset last year heading home after her funeral.  We all saw it, it was gorgeous.  

I know she's with Grandpa, and they're happy, and they're with us.  And we will see them once again.