yesterday we said our final goodbye's to mr. o's sweet grandma.
she was such a character!
i remember the first time i met her, it seems like forever ago, and i was so surprised at how "modern" she was (at least compared to my grandmas) wearing a black shirt with leapord print at the neck and sleeves, high heels, and a purse! she loved to shop, and always took great care with her appearance, and her home.
(i hope she will forgive me for sharing these pictures, she would be so embarrassed that she "wasn't dressed")
i really loved sitting with her and listening to her talk about her family. her love for her parents especially was so apparent. she would talk about her angel mother, and how her husband would tell her she was nothing like her- since she was such a spitfire!
she
placed a high importance on remembering birthdays, and had a hard time as her eyesight began to diminish and she couldn't write out cards like she used to. she didn't give up though, and we would still get a card with her sweet name scrawled in big, crooked letters that brought us to tears.
we shared the same birthday, and i would always make sure to
call her and wish her a happy birthday during the day, and she was
always surprised i remembered! (if there's anyone's birthday i can
remember, it's my own!)
she was always so darling to the kids, and helpful with new babies. she was always doing things for others, especially her family.
i have some really sweet recent memories of her with my boys. giving them little boxes full of coins, playing with stickers with miles, and letting miles handle all of her wrinkled skin with his curious little boy hands. miles was always so sweet with her, never hesitating to come and hug and kiss her and ask her how she was feeling, so these pictures from last friday (the last time we saw her really alert) are so precious.
i really grew to love her tremendously and will miss her.
3 comments:
Eve, I'm sorry about the passing of Mr. O's grandma. Death can certainly be bittersweet. Here's a poem about when people pass away. I'd actually only heard the last paragraph, but I love it. When people on the other side of the veil welcome loved ones back home, I imagine it might be something like that.
"A Parable of Immortality"
by Henry van Dyke.
I am standing by the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch
until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, 'There she goes!
Gone where? Gone from my sight - that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the places of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says,
'There she goes! ' ,
there are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout :
'Here she comes!'
Big hugs to you all. What a sweet lady. <3
What a great obituary-- and what a sweet tribute from you. I love the Miles was so sweet with her and vice versa. I remember seeing her at family things here and there. So special that you got to have a relationship with your sweet grandma-in-law. Love to you guys-- specially Mr. O and his fam...
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