Grandma

The baby on Daddy's lap

Graduation photo

A momma with two little ones

Proud momma with her family

Retired and enjoying life

Iconic last photo of Grandma on the farm.  Everyone in the family knows and loves this photo.

Five years ago today I said my final goodbye to my Grandma.  My last Grandma.  Held her hand, kissed her cheek, told her that I loved her one last time. But she was already gone.

My cousin and I had been staying at her side after a severe stroke left her paralyzed and her wish to die naturally meant that we had only a few days.  So many emotions.  The children and I had been camping out at my mother's for several days when I finally had to go home and take care of some business.  Twelve hours before I had planned on making the trip back, I got the phone call that she was going.  It is a three hour trip. Chances were not good that I would make it in time.  But I tried.  I was too late.

After the rest of the family had left, it was down to my cousin and I and Grandma once again.  We shared memories and waited for the funeral home to come.  We waited and watched while they did their job.  And then it was just quiet again.

The funeral would be several days away, so it was back home for us.  Laundry and school and planning and phone calls.  At her funeral, the children and I sang an old hymn Sweetly Resting.  I think Grandma would have liked it.  She was a very quiet woman, just as her parents were.  I think that quietness skipped her children and landed squarely on me.  But she was always there, always busy and doing and creating and tending.  Loving in the way that was most comfortable to her.

(I originally posted Sweetly Resting exactly one year before my Grandma passed away - a fact I didn't realize until several days after her funeral.)