Grandma Great, a GREAT Grandma...

One of my recent posts was titled Still Processing, and one of the things that has been on my mind is my Grandma's death while I was in China. Where I have been very emotional in leaving and remembering the kids in China, and Yung Yung's mom, I have not cried about my grandma at all. It' not that it hasn't affected me, but my recent tears have been sad ones, knowing the kids are still without families. My grandma lived a completely different experience....she was raised in a wonderful family herself, married to my grandpa for over 50 years (can't remember exactly how many before he passed in 1995), and was a wonderful mother, loving grandma and great-grandma. I can only remember happy thoughts when I think of her, and knowing she is living life fully now with her heavenly father, I shed no tears. That may change when I attend her memorial tomorrow, but for now I smile.

One of my favorite memories of Grandma is taking her to the Mariner game for her 90th birthday! She was the biggest M's fan I knew, watching or listening to every game. She and I would regularly discuss individual players and stats regularly, and she knew more than I did! She had never been to a major league baseball game before, so my niece Tiffany escorted her up on the train, where we all (my parents, brother Jeff and his family, and all mine) met up, and she had a wheel chair escort to her seat. A birthday greeting was on the reader board, and she received a Mariner hat and ball. She was like a little kid in a candy shop! To top it off, the game went into extra innings, and unlike the games of late, they won!

Grandma's father was one of eleven children, and the descendants gather annually for a family reunion in Coulee City, WA. Grandma was raised there on a wheat ranch (but she was born in Mold, a town that is no longer in existence), and I enjoyed the tales of her childhood when at the reunion. Grandma was the eldest living cousin, and below is a picture of the cousins at the last reunion she attended, in May of 2005.

The photo below was taken this past Christmas, and I love it! It was taken with all the great-grandkids, whom are all wearing hats that Grandma knitted. Notice the Mariner blanket on her lap....we gave that to her a few years ago for her birthday, and she always commented how much she liked it. It was one of the few things that stayed with her to the end in the nursing home.


Grandma, we will miss you, but thanks for a wonderful example of living a loving and Godly life!