When hearing about my Grandmother's passing, during the travel to the funeral and even now I have been pondering and collecting memories of my grandmother. Sadly, I am terrible with relationships, especially long distance, so I did not have a close relationship with my grandmother in the end. This does not mean though that I did not love my Grandma. Even though my grandma had eight children of her own, lots of grandchildren and even several great grandchildren, she still seemed to remember everyone of us. We would always get a birthday card from grandma and these weren't store bought birthday cards. They were sincere, heartfelt, homemade birthday cards that even my children received on their birthdays. I don't know how she kept up with all the birthday dates. It was probably because she was well organized and prepared.
My grandma also was good about getting us all together for family gatherings or family reunions. Like I said, she had to be real organized and resourceful to plan family functions, feed us all, and make sure sleeping arrangements were made for our big family. It was always fun to get together, we always enjoyed Grandma's cooking (it's why most of us came, just kidding) and everyone had a place to stay in the end, even if it was on someone's floor.
Grandma was a wonderful cook. Whenever we came over to see Grandma, even unexpectedly, I always remember Grandma being in the kitchen. She was either making rolls or getting dinner ready for her and Grandpa and it always smelled so good in her house.
Grandma was also very resourceful and crafty. If there was a wedding or projects that my mother and I were working on we would ask Grandma for advice when we got stumped. Grandma was always ready with great ideas of things to do for girl scouts and she was a big help in sharing ideas and some of her items for my siblings and my own wedding. She had much practice and experience though having raised nine kids herself.
One of the memories that I repeatedly look back on is when my Grandma graciously let Heidi, Mindy, Holly and I stay over the night while my parents took Anthony to a Utah hospital for an ear surgery. We had never stayed the night with just Grandpa and Grandma. They helped us with our homework, feed us one of Grandma great dinners and watched movies with us. What I remember the most though is we were upstairs in their living room, in the house on Chavel Dr. She was ironing clothes and we hadn't turned on the T.V. yet and we just started talking. We talked about what we were doing in school. We talked about events coming up and we talked about our parents. Grandma told us about our mother as a child. It was great to have the quality time with my grandmother. I wish I would have made more time to have more conversations like that with my grandmother when I lived closer.
I was very fortunate to also have my grandmother be my temple preparation teacher. My mother, grandmother and I met, I think weekly, to have temple classes to discuss and prepare me for the most important day of my life. The day that I made sacred covenants with my Heavenly Father, my Savior and my spouse in the temple. Like I said, I was privileged that my grandmother could give me those classes and share and teach scared blessings and experiences.
The other reason that I love my grandmother was she gave me the most amazing mother in the world. Through her example and her love she raised a wonderful family. From her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Of course, it doesn't stop with her family. She touched many lives in her community, wards, neighborhoods, everywhere. I will miss my Grandma but like she has taught us, I will see her again. I hope to be worthy enough to join her. I love you Grandma and cannot wait to see you again.
(Those that might read this, remember that I am not well with words and mean no offense but just want to express my feelings of a wonderful woman that has touched my heart in my life.)
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