Grandma

Well, it has been an exciting trip home. We moved it forward a week last minute because Bridget’s grandmother died. This morning my grandmother followed. She was about the same age as Bridget’s g-ma, and under similar circumstances, hasn’t really been herself over the last two years, but only hospitalized a week before her death.

It’s sad, but not in a terrible crushing sort of way, more in a ‘I new this was coming and have just been putting off my feelings for the last couple of years until she was totally gone’ sort of way.

To me, my grandma was a card playing, RV’ing, and knitting machine. I am glad she always did what she wanted, and remember how upset she would get the few times she didn’t get to. I’ve got clear memories of she and grandpa coming to visit with their RV even though we had several spare bed rooms. On those trips probably 50% of the awake hours were spent playing cards, some in our house, and some in their RV. She treated cards seriously and preferred no interruptions to a game, including snacks or phone calls. I get my love of cards form her. The rest of her time at our house, and every time I ever visited her at her house, she was knitting or sewing. I must admit most things she made were not really a style I’m into right now, but still I am so glad I have things of my own to remember her by.

One thing she always made that I really do like are hooded sweaters. There are pages full of cute little me and my siblings in our little hoddies. Yellow duckies on the front pocket and all. After grandpa died, I was in college in the same town where she lived and got over to visit her pretty often. She asked me what I wanted, and a hoodie was at the top of the list. Typical grandma style, she finished it in under a week then held onto it for a year until Christmas. It is made with a wool that is nice to the touch and fit me just right. Funny thing about it was that she simply scaled up the baby hoodie pattern she always used when we were little. If you can imagine, on a baby, the front pocket, to be of any use, covers about ¾ the front of the sweater. So mine had a pocket that covered my chest. I wore it for a few months before I broke down and took it back for her to have the pocket removed. It was really ridiculous looking. Now, one giant pocket later, I still wear that thing. She had lost her knitting ability by the time Silas was born, but thankfully, Silas’ grandma (my mom) is carrying on the tradition. Silas is on number two sweater now, and Emmet just got his first for Christmas. Very cute.

There are loads of other stories my mom tells which sound amazing (marring a traveling big band member, running a boarding house for college students, raising her kids), but while I carry those on, that is also not the grandma I really knew. I just knew and loved the result of all that. Miss you Grandma.