Remembering Grandma

Today I'm thinking of my Grandma Lois.  It's her birthday today.  She would have turned 89.  I think of her often and I miss her too but it doesn't make me sad.  Why?  Because I believe she's happy where she's at.  I also believe I will see her again someday and that makes me smile too!  Until then these are the things that I think of when I think about Grandma Lois:

-Jergens Cherry Almond lotion

-Scented candles burning in her house at ALL times

-Her tan legs, painted toenails and flip flops

-Sitting in HER chair reading a novel and drinking a Diet Coke or Pepsi

-going to her house on Sundays and eating Lucky Charms but mainly eating the marshmallows in the Lucky Charms

-Pepperidge Farm Goldfish

-Homemade Reuben Sandwiches (No one made them as good as she did)

-Helping her make her bed as she got older and how she wanted the bedspread put on a certain way by following the seam in the bedspread.  I never could figure out what in the hell she was talking about.

-Easter egg hunts

-She called my daughter Kami which is NOT her name.  Kam Bam aka Kami still remembers.

-Perfume

- Her fridge was ALWAYS stocked with soda and her cupboards full of cookies and candy

-Easter candy served at Christmas and Christmas candy served at Easter

-Her frail weak hands that couldn't even button up her own shirt

-Toaster Ovens

-Vacuums

-Clip on earrings (Which by the way my sister took to a bead shop and they turned her clip on earrings into rings for each of the granddaughters.  Brilliant!  Love mine!  And very vintage!)

-She always had gum in her purse.

-Taking her to JC Penney and then stopping for an Orange Julius and french fries

-Lunch breaks at her house during work

-Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners and her homemade pumpkin pie and mince meat. (Yucky mince meat.)

-Nagging and scolding grandpa
-crocheted covered hangers
-showing me as a kid how to make a pocket out of a paper napkin so I could fill it with snacks and goodies
-one of these cup dispensers in her downstairs bathroom

-ballet house slippers

-Ice cream and otter pops

-basketball games and pool

-picnics on the patio

-bike rides to her house from Providence to Logan and then hoping someone would drive us home

-her generous gifts and willingness to help her children and grandchildren

-Magazines to read on our Sunday visits

-Playing Guess Who, Go Fish, and Old Maid

These are the memories that I keep and cherish in my heart of my grandma.  One of my most special memories was being able to visit her as she was ill and dying in the hospital.  It may sound weird and a bit morbid but there was such a peaceful feeling during those times.  I'll never forget visiting her with my cousin about a month before she passed.  If I remember correctly she was on oxygen at the time and very difficult to understand.  I remember her saying something along the lines that we were "her girls."  And we were.  We did what we could to help her and serve her because she did so much for us and all her family.

 

On Halloween Day 2009 while surrounded by her family she peacefully passed away.  We each took a turn telling her we loved her and then my grandpa told her she could go and she did.  We were sad.  We cried.  And now we remember, laugh and celebrate her life.  Whenever I eat ice cream with the Magic Shell ice cream topping I think of Grandma.  When I wear my clip on earring ring I think of her.  When Kam plays dress up with one of her purses and I get a whiff of her perfume I'm reminded of Grandma.  When I sit on the bar stools in my kitchen that she sat on in her kitchen I think of her.  When I cook pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches on her griddle I crave one of her Reuben's.  When the kids and I play her Guess Who game I remember the hours spent at her house.  The memories flow vividly through my mind and her legacy lives on.

I love you grandma!