Sad

Grandma died on Thursday morning. My sister was able to be with her all Wednesday when she went through her decline. I'm really glad she wasn't alone. Her stomach began to seriously cramp and the medicine the nurses gave her initially made her very sick. S was able to be with her the whole time and hold her hand until she essentially fell asleep and wouldn't wake up. It's been a tough month on the whole family and we're all glad she finally died - mainly because living in a home was her worse nightmare. She was happy there as she had a great room mate and the nurses were just wonderful to her. The food was also what she liked to eat - heavy on the veggies.

The funeral is tomorrow and my mother has asked me to speak. I'll talk about what made her special to me and share some of my favorite times with her.

One of my favorite times was when she and Grandpa lived in Midland. Their home was neat as they had some acreage and would garden a lot. The back yard had a huge peach tree with a metal table and chairs under it. My sister and I would spend hours pretending to be a restaurant - complete with menus and waitresses. I don't know how many glasses of water my grandparents drank, but it was quite a lot and the two of them would let us play restaurant until the sun would go down.

Then we once got some Barbie dolls and they didn't have any clothes. So we went to the local Thrift store to see if they had any doll clothes. They didn't. But Grandma wasn't going to disappoint her grand daughters. We bought some junk jewelry and some old socks. It's amazing how she was able to whip up elegant evening dresses made out of those socks. "We always made our own toys," is something she said that I will never forget.

I will never forget how everyone would buy her a new deck of cards, but she'd still play solitaire with the same cards - bent and covered with crud. I loved seeing those cards whenever I went to visit her.

And the food you'd get when you came to visit - my goodness! I've always been on the heavy side and I know Grandma really worried about that and get on to me to lose the weight. But whenever I came to see Grandma, she would always prepare enough food to feed an army. Not only that, she'd always make sure she'd have the grand children's favorite food on hand: Chicken Fried Steak for S, Peaches from the garden for K, and Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream for me.

Finally, I will always be indebted to her commitment to education. I know my mother's college education literally changed my life and I also know her sacrifice to make it happen. She scrimped and saved and made sure the twins were able to go to college. That dedication influenced future generations to come.

Thank you, Grandma. I love you and will miss you terribly.