Grandma

Today marks the third anniversary since my grandmother's passing. I miss her. A lot.
I lived in Mexico when I was younger. She and Grandpa, along with my mom and cousin, came to visit me and my brother. That was the highlight of my entire time down there. While sitting around the living room one night with everyone talking my poor grandma stood up and exclaimed, "Oh shut up. This is ridiculous. No one speaks in Spanish this much." I was mortified but totally understood what she meant. When I first moved there my brain was so overloaded that I would see people whispering and think that they had to be speaking in English. I just couldn't comprehend not speaking in English. I got what she was saying.
When I went to college I would spend the night at her house when I had to work. They lived closer to work and school and I didn't want to commute. She would make me a lunch every day. One day my coworker told me I should quit eating so much. I couldn't bear the thought of not eating the lunch my grandma made for me. I was 19 years old after all, and perfectly capable of packing my own. I wasn't going to give up a good thing. I started exercising to counteract the massive amounts of calories my grandma was putting into my stomach.
When Officer Hottie and I got engaged my parents were upset with us. They were not happy about the timing of the engagement (I'll leave that story for another post). My grandma is the one who took pictures of us. She said my parents would want pictures to look at one day. I didn't believe her then, but she proved to be right. The picture she took went on the front of our wedding invitation.
She and my grandpa eloped. She said it was the best worst thing they ever did. They moved away from their families so their marriage wouldn't be annulled by her parents. She loved my grandpa completely. She missed her family completely. I think her heart was always torn.
When OH and I went to a wedding, after we were engaged but before we were married, I ironed his shirt for him. He walked into the room my grandma was in and she promptly made him take it off so she could re-iron it. My ironing skills are still lacking.
She made my wedding veil for me. She had my dress pressed and dry cleaned before the wedding. She bought me a tea set that I thought was silly. After Snuggles was born she visited in the hospital and held him. When I asked for him back she laughed and said no. She made the best spaghetti and meatballs. She told us all we were fat. And then she laughed like it was ok to say that to someone. She told me to have more than three children. She said odd numbers made for odd children. So we had four. They are still odd (as I type this my daughter is pretending her foot is a phone.)
She remembered everyone's birthday. She had the softest cheeks and I loved to kiss them. She also had random whiskers and didn't seem to care. She loved to go thrift store shopping. She knew how to love and she loved very very well.
She died when my daughter was three months old. I wish she could have seen her grow. She would have loved her curls and her personality. She was so surprised when LadyBug was born. "I really thought Officer Hottie was so big he'd only be able to make boys." I loved her reasoning. I wish she could have met Fuzzy. She would have loved his blond hair.
On my mom's birthday she always bought my grandma a new rose bush. My grandma told me, "I hope you treat your mother as well as she treats me." I started buying my mom flowers on my birthday. I am very thankful she gave birth to me.
Grandma lived through the depression. One time her dad gave her a nickel to go buy an ice cream. She dropped it while walking over a bridge. She watched the nickel the entire way down, then climbed down to where the nickel landed. She understood the value of money. I admired that about her.
She loved Jesus. Utterly and totally. He was her everything. And she told everyone about him. And she passed her faith onto her family.
She gave birth to seven children and miscarried two. She had 26 grandchildren and as of today has 31 great-grandchildren, including those in the womb and those in heaven.
Now I drink tea from the tea set she gave me. It doesn't seem so silly anymore.

R2, Grandma, Me (pregnant with Snuggles), Mom, R1

A favorite memory