Remembering Grandma

When we got home from church today, there was a voicemail message telling us that my grandmother passed away last night.

It's not a big surprise. Grandma has had Alzheimer's, or something like it, for several years now, and in the past month or two her health has gone downhill fast. We know she's in a better place now, happy to be reunited with Grandpa, and finally able to see, hear, and think clearly again. But we will still miss her.

T. doesn't really understand and didn't know her very well, but A. and M. both cried a little. We talked about some of the memories we have of Grandma. I decided I need to write down the best things I remember, before more years and more faulty brain cells blur the details further. There isn't time tonight to write everything (and I'm sure you don't want to read it all anyway), but here are a couple of things that come to mind:

---When Grandma taught junior high school English, French, and Spanish, and I was still in elementary school, once in a while my mom would take me to Grandma's classroom when Grandma was teaching. I liked sitting at the big desks and listening to the spelling words or the French sentences. It made me want to be a teacher. (When I told Grandma that, she would tell me horror stories about disrespectful teenagers or parents who were angry about their children's grades. But she stayed with it and taught there until she retired.)

---Just a few years ago Grandma mentioned to me that during a windstorm, she'd become concerned about the cover on her swamp cooler. It had come loose and was in danger of blowing away. Nobody else was home, so she got a ladder, climbed on the roof and secured the cover. I said, "Grandma! You probably don't weigh much more than that cover. You could have blown away yourself!" She paused a moment, then laughed and said, "Yeah, I was a little worried there. But it was a new cover."

---When I was in junior high my English class was supposed to read The Count of Monte Cristo -- an abridged version. Grandma lent me her big, old, unabridged copy. I still remember reading it late at night in my room, unable to put it down, wanting to see what would happen next. From then on, I was never happy with abridged books. There were several other books over the years that Grandma lent to me or I lent to Grandma. I wish I'd taken more time to talk about books with her. Someday I hope we will have many more discussions together. Maybe in French!