As I said before, Samantha may at time's post an item or two to my blog... this one I'm going to put up for her. It's mainly regarding her Grandma Moon. As you'll read, Samantha was very close to her and she was a major impact on my wife's life, so much so that Aundrea's middle name was given in her honor! Enjoy..."It has been almost eight years now since my Grandma passed away but in my mind, as vivid a memory as yesterday’s events. It was Saturday, October 13th, 2001. I was a freshman in college and four hours away from home. The call from my mother was very unexpected and very heart breaking. To this day I am thankful for a wonderful roommate who was more than willing to drive the four hours to my home so that my dad did not have to come and get me during this time. I am also thankful for a very dear friend who stayed with me during that entire week even though she had never met my family or my Grandma.
Grandma loved life and lived it to the fullest. Even to the day she died she was very active and let everyone know it. You never knew what to expect from her. I think this is why I was so insistent on naming my daughter after her. There are many memories I have of Grandma and each of them I hold very dear. Things like overnighters, garage sales, and shopping.
Growing up I spent a lot of time at my grandparents. To this day I am very grateful to my parents for allowing this. I had many overnight stays in which Grandma and I did many things. Our favorite pastime was window shopping. We had two or three stores we loved to go into in the town of Brainerd. One (that no longer exists) was in the mall just a few blocks from their home. This store had a very large display of a village (the kind you see at Christmas), knick-knacks, and dolls. I know my love for dolls came from this experience. Our other favorite place was the Christmas store which again had many knick-knacks to look at. Other times I stayed at my grandparents I would be helping with the garage sale they had almost every year. This was always an experience. It never failed to have Grandpa heading to the attic of the garage to pull something else down to sell and Grandma yelling at him to get down because he was going to hurt himself climbing up there. There was always plenty of zucchini and toffee bars to sell if nothing else.
Grandma loved each of her grandkids very dearly and made sure each of us knew this. She had several sleepovers for all of the grandkids with no parents allowed. On one of these occasions the boys decided it would be fun to sleep in the garage in the car and Grandma encouraged it. When we would get up in the morning she would take us to the park for breakfast and she always had the small boxes of cereal that you poured milk into. Another time she invited all of the granddaughters by special invitation for a tea party. This was a dress-up in dresses with a tea set and mini sandwiches and cakes tea party. One of the only times I remember seeing Grandma in a dress.
There was a quirky side to Grandma as well and I would be unfair in leaving this out. I am sure there is not one grandkid that could say they did not receive a wet willy, get their nose picked, receive a knuckle sandwich, or have their two jam eaten. If all were not done at least one of them was.
Out of all of these memories there is one that sticks out clearer then all the rest. This would be the last time I saw my Grandma alive. When I left for college my Grandma promised me one trip out to North Dakota to pick me up and bring me home. All I had to do was call and ask any time, but only once, during the year. I took advantage of this very early in the school year and to this day I am so glad I did. There was a campout I had been to every year with my Missionette group at our church and I did not want to miss it. Grandma was more then happy to come and get me and brought my cousin Katherine with her. I could not wait for them to get there so I could show off my room and my college to them. We left for home and what was to be a three and a half to four hour trip home turned into a seven to eight hour trip. I was not yet familiar enough with the route to remember by heart and Grandma ended up taking a few turns I have yet to understand why. However, it has become a trip that Katherine and I hold very dear and have many a good laughs over when we get together.
When I return home and go to visit Grandpa I can still to this day see Grandma in the house. She is either standing in the kitchen at the sink or the stove or she is in the living room lying on the couch pretending to be asleep. I expect her to pop around the corner at any minute to give me that hug I miss so much. Grandma taught me to love life and to love family no matter the circumstance. I may not always live this out today as I get caught up in what is going on around us but as I sit here writing this these lessons are very real. I miss her greatly and wish she were still here but I know I will always have the memories and the lessons she taught even if she didn’t think she was teaching them."
No comments:
Post a Comment