Friday, January 08, 2010

Remembering Grandma

My sweet 97 yr. old Grandma passed away last night. It's been a long time coming and truthfully she could have passed a year ago when she had surgery and it would have been for the best. It's been a long hard year for my mom and grandma.

Here are a few photos I have of recent pictures of her. One from June with Isabelle and the other with Matthew when he was a baby.


6 weeks after Matthew was born.

 
Isabelle was about 3 months here.  I was shocked at the condition my Grandma was in.  She was pretty frail and confined to a wheelchair and could hardly hear or keep up with what we were talking about.  I'm so glad that she got to meet Isabelle at least once.  Isabelle's middle name is Sadie after my Grandma.


I have great memories of time with Grandma and my mom was her only living child (her brother died when he was a baby) so we had the privilege of having her with us for Thanksgiving and Christmas and we would go visit her at her house in the summers.

Fun memories:
-Her yummy cake doughnuts that she always had on hand. They were soooo good!
-She would always make ham and cheesy potatoes when we visited her
-Playing kick the can in her awesome yard
-Playing dress up with her costume jewelry
-Wearing her cool high heels and hats around while visiting her
-Fun family reunions out in her little town
-Sleeping in grandma's bed when we went to visit (she was a widow for 30+ years)
-Playing at and walking to the park in her little town of Myton, UT
-Walking to the post office with her and my brother to get her mail and we would pass the 3 legged dog
-Standing on the bed in her covered porch area and peeking into the kitchen through the vent and spying on what everyone was doing
-Taking baths in her claw foot bathtub
-Calling on her rotary telephone
-She would always read the same books when she came to stay at my parents house and we would always talk about what she was reading - she loved the book Charlie.
-She always fell asleep and snored while she was reading
-She would leave me kit kats (her favorite) or money on my pillow when she would leave after visiting us in Utah
-Chasing after me with a brush trying to comb my hair while my parents were on vacation (I think I was 8)
-She wore panty hose every day and a girdle when she was younger and I remember them always hanging up to dry and wondering what all those things were about.

She was one tough lady.  She survived her son dying as a baby and my mom's dad dying in an accident and had a business and raised my mom by herself until she remarried when my mom was 12.

I feel so grateful to have to many fun memories with her and for having her in my life for so many years. Not everyone gets to have that with their Grandma.

I hope she's had a great reunion with her first husband (she got remarried and was then a widow of her second husband 30+ yrs) and son who she's been apart from for over 70 years.  Most of her siblings and friends have passed on so I'm sure yesterday was a really great day in heaven for her.

Love you!

4 comments:

Em said...

Sorry to hear about her, but like you said, it does get hard at the end. It was similar with my grandma. My mom took care of her for so long, and she had it pretty rough at the end. It's great to know they are so much happier now, and are with people they love.

kris said...

I'm sorry about your Grandma's passing...

Brent said...

Great words and great memories. We really did have a wonderful Grandma and some wonderful memories!

Heather said...

Karin,
I remember always seeing your Grandma Chandler at your house. Reading through your memories, I too remember hearing her snoring asleep in the chair! What great memories. She was a great lady!
I'm sorry to hear about her passing, but I'm glad to know she is having many joyous reunions now.
I'll see you on Saturday.