Lessons from Grandma

My Grandma Rosie passed away Thursday afternoon.  It came as a surprise as she hadn't had any new major health issue. I arrived home today and was blessed that Gabe was able to fly in from Hawaii before his deployment.  In my 8 hour drive home, I had time to reflect on Grandma, the life she lived, and values she taught.  Most of my current memories of her were in her limited physical form after her stroke.  But I found so much joy in remembering old memories, as well as seeing how she stayed the same after her stroke.  Grandma was a very spunky, determined, loving woman, and that never changed.  

Here are just a few memories of Grandma.  Each so special to me, each showing just a sliver of the woman she was

Grandma was a hostess.  It really was one of her spiritual gifts.  Anyone new at church got an invitation over for lunch.  And she cooked the best food!  I remember one holiday, probably Christmas, were she wanted to make 1 dish for each person.  We could all make a request and she was going to make sure it ended up on the table.  And it ended up being 10 items...bread and butter pickles, green beans, bread...I remember my request was mashed potatoes and I was so excited!! I just have so many memories of the whole extended family that started with a meal and ended up just hanging out as a family.  That example is what I saw passed down to my mom, and it's something I desperately want in my life in my home.  The openness, fun, family, and the safety found at Grandma's is a model of how a Godly women's home should look.

We spent lots of time at Grandma's.  Lots of weekends, nights here and there, and maybe a week or two in the summer.  It was our second home.  The biggest memory I think all the grandkids had (other than having to pose for hideous pictures constantly), was when she would tuck us in for night, she would give us backrubs while singing old hymns.  It was such a comforting thing and I don't ever really remember being upset that my parents were away for the night.  She would sing 6 or 7 hymns,  taking her time, just enjoying the moments that became such treasured memories to us.  Because of that, I have a special love for hymns. 

Grandma taught me how to earn my money. Except for birthdays or Christmas (or the time she paid to finally cut my hair), every dollar from Grandma was earned. She would make me follow her around in the yard, marking dandelions with a flag.  I got a nickel for everyone I found.  There would be flags all over the yard, and we would then go around and hoe each one.  She would make me mow the front yard, but afterwards I'd get a dollar or two.  When I was older and Dad taught me how to use his .22, we would go over at night and shoot the rabbits on Grandma's yard.  My wage was $1 per rabbit.  And gophers.  She hated them! We'd flush them out with water and she'd hack them with her hoe. I don't remember the going wage for gophers, but I remember the time we got 7 in a day.

I remember one time she was watching my cousins and I while our parents double dated.  Briann and I shared a room and we were pretty cantankerous when we got together.  After goofing off when we should have been in bed, we decided maybe we could talk Grandma into letting us stay up, so we tried the "we can't sleep because we're hungry" game.  I think she saw through it, but I remember her words so clearly.  "There are so many children going to bed hungry.  I won't have any in my house."  And at 10pm, she popped us popcorn. Not sure there is a lesson here, just a memory.  Maybe the lesson was to sometime humor someone else?  Who knows if you are making a memory for them?  Or maybe the lesson was to show love to cantankerous kids? Or maybe it was as simple as showing love and generosity to someone else, even if you are unsure how honest/sincere their motives are?

The only time I remember Grandma being mad, really mad, is when Tyler and I went tramping around in the wheat field, I think crawling and making "tunnels".  Well, the spot we chose for our little adventure was right in front of her back window.  She was so mad at us!! Told us to never go play in a wheat field after Easter.  At that time, I knew that you could let the calves graze on the wheat, but then later you shouldn't walk in the wheat fields. That was the extent of my knowledge. I didn't really know much about the seasons of farming/harvesting. But that day Grandma taught me my first bit of farming advice and Easter is burned in my mind as the cut-off for playing in the wheat.

This is one of my favorite memories: A year or so after her stroke, I had a late volleyball game and had to be up super early the next day for a band trip.  So I walked to Grandmas apartment and spent the night in her guest bedroom.  I remember slipping in the back door and trying to be quiet as not to wake her.  I was 14ish and still adjusting to the "new" Grandma after her stroke.  I remember lots of frustration in trying to understand her, and her frustration with her new limits. When I walked into the spare bedroom, the first thing to catch my eye was that she had taken the time to get an extra blanket and put it on the bed for me.  Such a simple act, but to me it was big.  She might not have been able to communicate clearly, but her message was crystal.  She was still the same.  Her love for me hadn't changed.  She still wanted to take care of me, however she could. The Grandma's love I had known before was still there regardless of her physical limitations.

I went home a few weeks ago and I stopped in to see Grandma.  I've noticed the past couple years, she doesn't try to converse as much as she used to.  But she found joy just having family around her. Even if she didn't make an effort to join the conversation, she just loved to listen to what was happening in our lives.  It was such a simple, uncomplicated love.  A joyful love.  A unconditional love.  There are few people in our lives who take that much joy and love in us, especially in the little things. I see it as a small, inner circle of people.  It may not have fully hit me yet, but my circle just shrunk dramatically. I'm thankful Grandma is living fully in Heaven with our Savior.  A fullness that we on earth can only imagine. I'm thankful that she got to meet Gabe and that they had a special bond that started when she literally dragged me out of her house and locked me outside so Gabe would tell her without me overhearing where he had planned our surprise Honeymoon.  She was the only person he ever told before we left.  He's response was "it's Grandma.  You can't say no to Grandma."  I find sadness for me that she won't ever get to meet my children.  But she knew of our adoption plans and was excited for it. 

Grandma at my wedding in 2009

On a side note, apparently Grandma got in a walker fight at church last Sunday.  Someone else tried to take her seat (that has been hers for the last 13 years), and in the middle of prayer, all anyone could hear was the clanking of her using her walker to fend off the imposing walker.  Yes, her determination, independence, and stubbornness were there from day 1 to her last day.  I'm proud to say I definitely have those traits and I wear them proudly, much to Gabe's dismay.