a goodbye

My grandmother died Friday night. She was 90 years old. This is a hard thing to write about because, well, death just is. I love my grandmother very much and will miss her. I'm sad that WG probably won't remember her. She will know her through stories and pictures.



I've been thinking about what I will tell WG about Grandma. The beach... the zoo, and her relationship with Max and Jenny who were two ourangutans who lived at the zoo... Taffy the very large next-door-neighbor dog... the fun times playing in the attic with Aunt Bonnie's old formal dresses, crutches and Grandma's shoes... playing with Dad's old skee ball... the push lawnmower... the horse hitch in the front and the milk door in the back... Little tree Lindon who absolutely REFUSED to die despite everyone's best efforts... bridge mix (mmmm)... Playing Uno, Yatzee and occasionally rummy... Hamburgers on Friday (Sat?) night with buttered grilled buns... Fried perch... jello salad (99% of the time she made a great jello salad with jello, marshmallows, nuts, and who knows what else. It was creamy and while it was solid I don't remember it being particularly gelatinous. One time, though, she told us that she had made jello salad and it turned out to be lemon jello with spinach, celery, nuts and something else that was equally horrifying. It sticks out in my memory because she was a very good cook and it was one of very few misses.)... O&H bakery... bedlunch... the wooden puzzle that looked like a shoe... her knitting and many many donations for charity... watching wheel of fortune... writting letters back and forth... seven kinds of homemade cookies every time we visited.....



Grandma was a knitting fiend. She always had something going until a little bit before WG was born when she couldn't knit anymore due to arthritis. She knit sweaters, caps, layettes, blankets... She donated TONS of items to a gift shop to be sold to raise funds. (I can't for the life of me remember what the affiliation was, I think it was a Lutheran nursing home?) We are lucky enough to have a pink sweater she knit. It's a little small on WG now. We've packed it away for whichever grandchild winds up having the next girl. We also have a baby hat she knit. She gave me the hat when I was pregnant with WG saying that it was to be her going home hat. I smiled and thanked her but was privately freaking out because the hat was HUGE. The hat still fits WG's four-year-old head to give you an idea of the size. As a first-time-mom I had no idea what to expect and the thought of something that large coming out of my body made me want to run to my OB and ask for a C-section.



I will miss you, Grandma, but I am happy that you have gone home.