My grandma’s life just got a lot better…it went into the beauty of eternity, a grace filled place that I have yet to discover personally. My God, has decided that he would like my spitfire of a grandma to visit Him and be reunited with my grandpa. What a wonderful knowledge I have, that someday she will be with me again, but what bittersweet peace this is today. Some of my favorite memories of my grandma were when she would wash my hair as a child…I’d cry because of my sensitive head, and she’d turn the brush over, bang the top of my head with it, and say “I’ll give you something to cry about!” This sounds really harsh I’m sure, but really it is so funny now to think about it. Another thing that I remember is when my cousin & I would sing at the dinner table. She would always tell us not to sing, but since our hearts were overflowing with music, we’d always get punished. She would lock the two of us in a broom closet about the size of 1’x1.5’…with no way out. This was horrible, until we figured out that we could sing in the closet as loud as we’d like and there wasn’t anything worse she could do to us! ha. A few summers ago, after my grandpa died, I moved in with her so that she would have someone around her to take care of her & keep her company. Early on in the summer, a thought came to mind that I should write notes to her that she would get when I was already gone for work. I would write a simple thought & verse for her everyday. One day, around lunch I got a phone call from my mom asking me why I hadn’t written a note that day. I had forgotten or been late, I can’t remember now, but until that point, my grandma had not said anything about those little notes….but that day, she told everyone in my family that I had forgotten…I didn’t know just how much that meant to her. She was always so sweet, happy, abundantly joyful & brimming with the Spirit of God. Her faith was consuming & contagious. She was witty, a smart-alek and a great story teller. A few years ago I began asking her questions about her life, who she was, what it was like growing up in the 40’s, what her family was like. I remember coming to visit one day and she had begun writing her story for me! She had about 12 pages handwritten notes about growing up on a farm, what her parents were like, all kinds of fun things to know about! She wrote it like a letter, it was one of the sweetest things she’d ever given me. After that, we’d talk about writing her story & we’d come up with questions all the time that I’d want to know…she’d always tell me something, even if she wasn’t always positive about what she remembered. Something I’ll always remember, was when she told me about meeting & falling in love with my grandpa. I asked her one day about when she knew she loved him. She answered “Well, I never really liked him!” I was shocked, utterly speechless. She went on to tell me that when he first asked her out, she really didn’t want to go, but decided it was either go out with Ray or stay home…she decided to go out. She continued this for a while, not really caring how much HE cared for HER. Then one day, she said they were at a party and all she wanted was for him to hold her hand. She said she almost went CRAZY because she wanted to hold his hand so bad. That was when she knew that she loved him. She was one of the strongest women I knew. Whenever something would go wrong, she would see it, acknowledge the pain or trouble and then move on. She was never one to linger too long on the bad. Although, she would always want to know what was troubling you and then make sure you understood that she thought whatever was happening was terrible! She’d always say in her own way “Well! Can you believe it?” And she’d give a shocked face & raise her hand before slapping the table. She was so cute. One of the sweetest & craziest grandma’s I’ve ever known….the only one I’ve ever known. I’m going to miss her like I don’t even know.