Paternal Grandmother's Passing

My Grandma passed away yesterday. My mom called me as I was meeting with a client. I immediately knew what she was calling about. My grandmother has not been in good health for several years and was recently put in a long-care unit.

She was always a nice grandma. She always had treats for us to enjoy. Her cookie jar was always brimming with cookies and she had many crystal candy dishes throughout her house.

She always welcomed us into her home and we loved to visit her. When we lived about an hour from her house, we would visit almost every weekend. However, the older we got, the less frequently we visited. I feel bad because over the past 10 years I have been so busy with school and my own family that I have only been to visit her a few times--and those visits were always somewhat rushed.

I remember one summer I got to go stay with her for about 2 weeks. She let me work for her as a cashier at her grocery store. She also bought me a very cool knife that I still have to this day. I think it only cost $12, but to me that seemed like too much. She explained to me that because the other cousins all lived in town and got spoiled more often that she could splurge once in a while for me. :)

When I went to BYU, she gave me an old 1970 Ford Galaxie 500 car to drive. She again explained that she could only sell it for $300 and that she would rather give it to me. I drove that car until it basically fell apart in 2000 after I was married. My stepkids were glad it was gone because they thought it was embarrassing to ride around in a big "boat," but I loved that car and have a lot of fun memories from driving it.

The only time my grandmother ever got mad at me, or even scolded me a little, was a time when for some reason I was chasing my brother Native Minnow in the house. I tackled him in the back bedroom and I was trying to embarrass him by pulling down his pants. (I think I was about 7 at the time). She came in and was very upset with me and I was so ashamed that I had made her disappointed.

She always had a tradition of having the grandchildren stay over on New Year's Eve. She said that one of Santa's elves, Johnny Green, would come to bring some of the leftover toys from Christmas. Those were always exciting nights for us as young kids.

My grandmother always cooked meals for us that generally entailed large amounts of meat...my grandfather was a butcher, so I guess they had lots of meat around. :)

She had a basketball court installed in her backyard and we spent hours playing HORSE, PIG, and pick-up games.

My grandmother also was very into family history and was always wanting us to know stories about her parents, cousins, siblings, etc. In fact, the past few years, she has been working on writing her family history and I hope that there will be copies available to her sons and the grandchildren.

I know she is happier now being reunited with loved ones. Grandpa died in 1992 and she has been separated from him all that time. I will miss her. We all love her so much...