Thursday, September 12, 2013

Iris

We had my Grandmother Iris's funeral this week.  I'm still processing that. My grandmother is gone.


Is it reasonable to say that I will miss someone I have seen very little of in the past several years?  Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I will miss the idea of her.  I will miss knowing she is there if and when I chose to go visit.  I miss the grandmother I knew as a little girl. 

There are things I want to share with you about my grandmother:
  • She was 93 years old at the time of her passing.  She lived a long and full life.
  • She was a Navy wife, who had to move her family of 5 a lot.
  • She had so many grandchildren, step-grandchildren, and great-grandchildren I don't know how she ever kept track of us all.
  • I called her on 9/11 to see if she had heard anything from my cousin who was working in the Pentagon at the time - and ended up listening as she talked about her memories of Pearl Harbor as a young wife. 
  • She is the only person who ever called me by my full name.  Always - not just when I was in trouble.
  • She always smelled like Johnson's Baby Cream.  And always had a tub of it on her bathroom counter.
  • She would ask you what you wanted to drink with lunch or dinner, but was going to give you milk anyway.
  • She always put butter on sandwiches
  • She always seemed to have ice cream in her freezer
  • She loved to watch baseball games
  • I loved having her scratch my back.  When I was recovering from chicken pox, she took one finger and traced around the scabs so she could scratch my back for me without risking scars from the pox.
  • When my cousin and I told her how much we wanted to ride in an airplane - she found a deal on tickets, took us by plane to Charlotte where we had lunch and flew back on the same day.
  • She introduced me to my life long friend, Teresa
  • She had an organ (not a piano, an organ) in her living room and would let little girls sit and play at it.
  • When it had rained hard, she would take us to a place where the creek always flowed over the road to drive through the water.  And would let us roll down the windows so we could get splashed.
  • When I was in middle school she took me shopping and bought me a beautiful green cable-knit sweater that made me feel like I was queen of the preppies.
  • She gave me books about the saints to read, which led to a fascination with St. Kateri Tekawitha for a year or two  
  • She always sent greeting cards she had bought to support Boy's Town or some other charitable cause.



4 comments:

  1. So sorry for your loss, what wonderful memories you have of her!

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  2. Those are some sweet memories of your Grandmother. It's an "it's not odd, it's God" thing that I'm reading this today 'cause today is my Mamaw's 102nd birthday. She passed away in 2011, just 4 months shy of her 100th!!! I was soooo blessed to be as old as I am and still have my Mamaw.

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  3. I loved her fruit bowl! She thought Mom never gave us fruit because I always begged for an apple or pear or whatever but it always looked so beautiful and yummy!! Ribbon candy at Christmas!! YUM! And she would take us to the store when we were going to spend the night for each of us to pick out our favorite ice cream.

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