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.
