A Few Words for Grandma…
It comes to be about time for our first post. I meant to start posting much earlier, but when we first got our website up and running, my grandmother was in the final stages of advanced Leukemia, which she had been diagnosed with late May of 2006, and she passed away shortly thereafter (in August of 2006). She was one of the most wonderful people anyone could meet, and at some point I need to put together an album just for her, since she loved pictures so much. Words cannot begin to express how much I loved this woman and how much she meant to me and most everyone she touched in her life. She had a hard working life, and did the best she could raising her family, even after losing their father early to a heart attack, and on through her son Jack’s constant illness until he passed away. Sad as it may be to begin this site with something as sad as losing her, I can’t rightly begin without saying something about her first. It won’t convey everything I truly want to, because I just don’t have the words (which is why it has taken me so long to even attempt this), but at the least she deserves a small tribute on our page, since she holds such a large spot in our hearts.
The one thing people will always remember most about her is that she always lived, I mean truly lived. She was always busy, always running other people around, and volunteering on fair committees and the like, as well as running her own little craft fairs and organizing events for people in the apartment building she lived in. No matter what she did or who she was with, she was always full of energy and full of plans. She loved to bowl, loved to craft, and just loved being out and doing things, especially outside. I can’t tell you how many memories of walks in the woods, camping trips, bowling trips, fairs, as well as family gatherings I have.Â
We always used to go to her townhouse for the 4th of July because she was up on a huge hill and we could watch the fireworks from 4-5 surrounding towns all from her backyard. We would get sparklers and I remember well the year dad thought it would be fun to put firecrackers down the bumble bee hole in the side of the hill ;) And of course all the sledding we did on that hill in the winters (we didn’t hit the apartments at the bottom of the hill TOO many times), all the Christmases and Easter dinners. And of course the origins of the infamous Cookie Day. It started so simply, believe it or not.  Every year we would spend time baking cutout cookies at grandma’s house and then spend the rest of the day decorating them. Grandma, my mom, my aunt and us kids (sometimes we even got the guys to join in) would sit at the kitchen table for hours putting little colored beads and stars on with toothpicks and a little frosting, creating tinsel on the trees with the edge of a knife. It has certainly changed a lot since then, but those were the beginnings, and some of the best memories I have.
There were countless camping trips, hikes through the woods, and picking up shells and fossils along the beach. I think only grandma rivaled the number of rocks I would bring home from our trips. And our dog Smokey and her definitely had their own thing going ;) I can’t tell you how many times she would dig a hole under the back edge of grandma’s chair so she could lay behind her, but would dig too far and tip her backwards into a hole. Countless trips in general she was with us. Camping in Florida over winter break, the Band-Aid from the tent poles, and the first (and last) armadillo I ever saw in the wild. And all the craft fairs we would go to, her, mom and I. And of course the state fair, where we always stopped to listen to the jazz and country music play while we ate our cream puffs. I could go on and on about all the good times we had, and about all she had to talk about and everything she did.Â
The one thing that struck me was when we were in the hospital after she found out she had less than 6 months left, she told me so many people had regrets and things they wished they had done in their lifetime, but she didn’t have any. She did the things she wanted to do, and was content with how she lived her life, and the things she had done. She was such a strong, smart woman and she will always hold a huge part of my heart, and she will always be missed and thought of often, not just by me, but by so many people whose lives she was a part of. And I will never forget the smile on her face when we saw each other for what we knew would be the last time. I love you grandma.