As I said in my status last night, today marks 7 days since my Grammie passed away. She was 77 years old. 77 years on this planet. It was by no means an easy 77 years. No parent should have to outlive their child, and my grammie had to two times. She worked very hard to support my mother, and my aunt's uncles, and cousin's who lived with her. In the 18 years I had to spend with her, I never really remember her asking for much of anything, yet she would give constantly. She would give you the last bit of food from her cabinet if you were hungry. She would feed the stray cats from the neighborhood, grow flowers, and had a knowledge about birds (among other things lol) that would leave you dumbfounded. She could knit, crochet, needlepoint, cross stitch and to me, pretty much to anything crafty. She tried to teach me to crochet at least a dozen times when I was a kid, and I never seemed to get it. Yet every time I would ask her to show me, she would. And wouldn't get impatient with me, even once.
When I would go out trick or treating, we stopped at her house every year, if only for 5 minutes, so she could see us in costume. At the age I started attending sweet 16's, I would make my dad stop before he dropped me off each time, so I could show her how I looked in my dress. She got a kick out of it every time.
The fondest memory I have of her is from when I was about 14 or 15 years old. I went over to hang out with her, and I don't remember if her TV broke or what, but either way, there was nothing for us to do. So there was an atlas on her couch. We sat there for HOURS looking through this atlas and laughing about the ethnic breakdown of EVERY SINGLE STATE in the US and all of the Canadian Territories. Like, Alaska having a .014% hispanic population or some other obscene number like that.
I don't remember when exactly it was, but sometime after school started my senior year of high school is when she got very sick. I would go over maybe twice a week and hang out for an hour or two so my mom or aunts could catch a break. I painted a sun catcher for her. It had butterflies and angels on it with a phrase "Never give up, miracles happen every day." She loved it.
New years day 2004, my dad told me she passed away that morning. I was 18 years old when I lost her. I had never cried so much until that point in my life. I had 18 years with a woman who lived less than half a mile away from me, and I felt I never spent enough time with her. I found myself getting angry about all of the things she got to see my cousin's or my sisters do, but not me. 6 month later, I went to prom and graduated high school. 2 years later I moved out on my own. 3 years later I met my future husband. & 6 years later I married him and had my son.
Once my Grammie died, I made a conscience decision to make sure that I wouldn't have any guilt about not spending enough time with GG. I lived with her for almost my entire life. Every year for New Years Eve we have a get together at her house and a bunch of the grandkids would come over and sleep over and hang out all night. This year we were a little lighter than usual, but she still get a kick out of watching everyone get together and talk and play around. I got some awesome video and pictures of her playing with Lucas :)
GG is an amazing woman! She can be soooo funny and a wealth of life knowledge. She speaks so highly of my grandfather and even after what would have been 60 years, you can see so much love in her eyes when she talks about him. I have never heard her say anything even slightly bad about him. At 25 years old, I really feel like I appreciate her knowledge a lot more. But I would do anything to have had my grammie around for even another year, another week, hell even another day.
We never know when the people closest to us will be gone forever. I am telling you all from experience, unless your grandparents live HOURS away from you, go see them once a week. Even if they lose track of conversation while you are talking, or they sit there and tell you about the episode of Dr. Oz they watched earlier that day, GO SEE THEM. It will make them feel awesome that you took time out of your busy life to make time for them! And you won't be left with feelings of regret once they leave you forever. <3
I love you Grammie and I miss you ALL THE TIME! I know you are proud of all of us <3 <3 <3
When I would go out trick or treating, we stopped at her house every year, if only for 5 minutes, so she could see us in costume. At the age I started attending sweet 16's, I would make my dad stop before he dropped me off each time, so I could show her how I looked in my dress. She got a kick out of it every time.
The fondest memory I have of her is from when I was about 14 or 15 years old. I went over to hang out with her, and I don't remember if her TV broke or what, but either way, there was nothing for us to do. So there was an atlas on her couch. We sat there for HOURS looking through this atlas and laughing about the ethnic breakdown of EVERY SINGLE STATE in the US and all of the Canadian Territories. Like, Alaska having a .014% hispanic population or some other obscene number like that.
I don't remember when exactly it was, but sometime after school started my senior year of high school is when she got very sick. I would go over maybe twice a week and hang out for an hour or two so my mom or aunts could catch a break. I painted a sun catcher for her. It had butterflies and angels on it with a phrase "Never give up, miracles happen every day." She loved it.
New years day 2004, my dad told me she passed away that morning. I was 18 years old when I lost her. I had never cried so much until that point in my life. I had 18 years with a woman who lived less than half a mile away from me, and I felt I never spent enough time with her. I found myself getting angry about all of the things she got to see my cousin's or my sisters do, but not me. 6 month later, I went to prom and graduated high school. 2 years later I moved out on my own. 3 years later I met my future husband. & 6 years later I married him and had my son.
Once my Grammie died, I made a conscience decision to make sure that I wouldn't have any guilt about not spending enough time with GG. I lived with her for almost my entire life. Every year for New Years Eve we have a get together at her house and a bunch of the grandkids would come over and sleep over and hang out all night. This year we were a little lighter than usual, but she still get a kick out of watching everyone get together and talk and play around. I got some awesome video and pictures of her playing with Lucas :)
GG is an amazing woman! She can be soooo funny and a wealth of life knowledge. She speaks so highly of my grandfather and even after what would have been 60 years, you can see so much love in her eyes when she talks about him. I have never heard her say anything even slightly bad about him. At 25 years old, I really feel like I appreciate her knowledge a lot more. But I would do anything to have had my grammie around for even another year, another week, hell even another day.
We never know when the people closest to us will be gone forever. I am telling you all from experience, unless your grandparents live HOURS away from you, go see them once a week. Even if they lose track of conversation while you are talking, or they sit there and tell you about the episode of Dr. Oz they watched earlier that day, GO SEE THEM. It will make them feel awesome that you took time out of your busy life to make time for them! And you won't be left with feelings of regret once they leave you forever. <3
I love you Grammie and I miss you ALL THE TIME! I know you are proud of all of us <3 <3 <3
You have expressed such deep feelings for your grammie. And the sentiments that you have shared with us are touching and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Judy