My Grandma

My Grandma went to be with Jesus on Saturday night.  It's a celebration of a life that was lived well and completely devastating all at the same time and I go back and forth between knowing that she's been reunited in heaven with Grandpa and missing her deeply.

She was made to be a grandma.  She was a teacher and a mother, and apparently was great at both, but I feel like being Grandma was her true calling.  We loved going to her house and sleeping over.  We would fight over who got to sleep in her bed.  She would make us whatever we wanted to eat, which of course we would choose french toast, mac and cheese or homemade chicken soup - those were Grandma's classics.  

I don't remember her ever losing her patience with us.  But maybe that's because we were just good for her.  We had so much respect for her and I never wanted to disappoint her.  

She always bought me pears because they were my "favourite".  They weren't.  I think I went through a pear stage so then for the rest of my life she thought they were my favourite, but I couldn't tell her that they weren't.

She loved to play games with us.  And I'm a game girl.  So going to Grandma's was like winning the jackpot, she could play Yahtzee all day long.

She was the smartest person I have ever met.  She knew everything about everything.  She was a teacher and a librarian way before the internet age, so you actually had to know stuff then.  

She loved my boys and watching her become a Great-Grandma was amazing.  I'm so happy that I was able to share my kids with her and that they were able to meet her, even if they won't remember.  It's pretty special to be able to have a relationship with a Great-Grandparent.

These past few months have meant more to me than I ever would of realized at the time.  Because of my maternity leave I was able to visit Grandma more often.  I'm so thankful for that extra time that I had with her.  I would often take just Cooper and she loved to hold him.  Parker got his special time when my mom took him in to see her.  (Because dragging two kids all the way down the hall of the retirement home that she was in was difficult.)  She was thrilled with Cooper's size and what a good job I was doing feeding him!

30 years of memories is a lot and I could go on and on.  I hope that knowing her has changed me for the better.  I hope that I can look at the way that she loved and try to do the same in my own life.  I hope that I can be as generous as she was.  And I hope that someday a long time from now I can be half the Grandma that she was.

"Oh, I'm in pieces, it's tearing me up, but I know

A heart that's broke is a heart that's been loved" 

- Ed Sheeran