This cutting from my G'ma's yard is one tough plant...it survived in a cup of water for for 4 months
It has been a full month since my grandmother passed away from a stroke. I’ve been waiting to write about her passing…waiting for some huge emotional sobbing moment when I could pour out my heart about her in this blog. But it just hasn’t happened.
Since her death, I haven’t had that one big tear-filled grieving breakdown. I’ve cried only one time in the past month, and that was out of frustration sewing my child’s halloween costume.
Surprisingly, I’ve felt nothing but happiness and satisfaction about her dying. For years…probably since my grandfather died, we’ve heard my G’ma express how much she has wanted the good Lord to take her. She has wanted nothing more than to go meet her maker. She truly lived a good, long, happy life and she was ready to take the next step in her journey.
So her funeral was a celebration, and every detail was conducted exactly as she had planned, with one exception. She wanted it to be a short, sweet service. But it was loooooong…we spent a full 8 hours at the funeral home and church celebrating. It was the longest funeral in history, I’m sure….which is the exact opposite of what she wanted.
But I think she still would have been pleased because we spent every second of that time in celebration, not mourning.
I got to take this basket home with me from the funeral. You don't want to know what they look like a month later....I'm a plant killer. That will be a futer blog post, I'm sure.
I thought I knew my grandmother very well until the day of her funeral. It turns out that we ALL learned new information about her. It seemed like everyone had something to say about her when they opened the service up for comments, which is how we . I literally had to jump up and run to the front just to get a turn because so many people had something to say.
Even my shy little son, whose mouth is glued shut in front of people, had a lot to say. He insisted on accompanying me to speak, and he then insisted that I pick him up and hold him near the microphone so he could
“see all the people, mommy.”
What he really wanted to do was introduce himself to the audience and parrot everything I had to say. He was too cute to stop and my G’ma would have loved it, so we just went with it. He echoed everything I said. I didn’t know he was so fond of public speaking.
They were taller than me!
There is too much to say about my G’ma to put into one single blog post, so I’ll just briefly tell you some things I learned about my G’ma based on what everyone said about her:
- She was cutting edge for her time: She was the first person in town to get an electric mixer. Everyone came over to see this new kitchen novelty. After that, my G’ma was famous for her whipped potatoes, as if she wrote the first recipe. Who knew that my G’ma was on the cutting edge of technology?
- She cooked my aunt’s pet chicken (which she got as a baby chick for Easter one year) for dinner one night. I think my aunt is still traumatized by that!
- Her family was her job. She was an expert seamstress but always refused to be hired to sew for others because she was so dedicated to her family.
- She was dedicated to serving God. This is no surprise, but definitely repeated by every single person who spoke about her. She definitely played a key factor in so many people having a relationship with God too. Without her influence, a lot of people at her funeral may not have ever come to know God. G’ma always wanted “Amazing Grace” sang at her funeral, and my cousin did the honors with a amazing voice. She also sang “I Will Rise” by Chris Tomlin. I will always remember my Grandmother when I hear those two songs…and what a beautiful way to honor such a devoted Christ follower!
I love you G’ma!
She was proud of her plate collection
