It has been a tender week for both Rachel and I as we mourned the loss and Celebrated the life of our beloved Granny. Words can not even begin to convey the special person that she was. Rachel and I have both on numerous occasions written about her on this blogs pages. Her influence on my life has been extraordinary and has only been magnified as we delved deeper into the woman she was this past week. A week ago today I woke up just like any regular Sunday morning and tended to my children, we played and watched Pocahontas and I made two double batches of my Granny's famous cinnamon roll dough and left them to rise all morning. I put my kids down for their nap and was in the process of getting ready for church when my mother called and told me to hurry to the hospital.
My granny has had poor health for over a year now which has fluctuated up and down. She had been in the hospital for about five days and the day before we thought was finally starting to improve. We later learned that she was terminally ill and that it really was only a matter of time. Time, that seemed to come faster than any one could have predicted. Besides my aunt who had been helping care for her and my sweet Grandpa, Rachel and I were the only members of our large family in close enough proximity to make it in time to the hospital. Rachel and I met at the hospital and together we spent several hours at her bedside as she slowly slipped away. I felt so many emotions that day but more than any thing I felt humbled to have known this beautiful woman and for the opportunity to have always lived near her. She had the ability to make every person feel special. This has been expressed to me by members of our church , family members and life long friends who she shared her love and veracity for life.
I could sit here and tell you how sad I am to be with out her but through my faith and knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ I know that I will see her again.
My Granny was not like most Grannies, she was stylish and always impeccably dressed. I remember digging around in her closet as a small girl and admiring all her shoes and her perfectly pressed clothes. Rachel and I inherited our love for makeup from this little lady who had buckets of makeup at the top of her Laundry Room and Closet. When we would visit she always pulled down her buckets and let us ransack her makeup. She saved little containers and would let us fill them up and take them home. Some of this make up I have saved and one little pink container I have carried around for over a decade. There are some pretty atrocious pictures of Rachel and I decked out in Grannies makeup with the biggest grins on our faces. As I grew older she would always give me new things to try and gave me a whole slew of Nars lip glosses before I even had any clue what they were!
She also taught me to play several tunes on the piano. I was always mesmerized by her beautifully manicured nails and how they clicked on the piano keys. I can still play chopsticks to this day because of her.
For a few years while I was in middle and high school my grandparents lived right down the street from our family. We would go on family walks almost every Sunday and meet Granny and Grandpa at their house. There they would hop on their tandem bicycle together and ride with us around the neighborhood. Us kids always got such a kick out of that.
One year when we lived close to them my granny got very sick and when she finally started getting better and was home from the hospital, she asked that I come over and please paint her toes! She said they looked like troll feet and she couldn't paint them herself yet! I assure you they never looked anything like troll feet and I was honored to give her a pedicure.
My granny had a special way of understanding people and being in tune with their feelings and their needs. She would always make me little crochet things or gifts and would some how pick my ever changing favorite color. When I was baptized at the age of eight, I was completely obsessed with the movie the Titanic. Right after my father baptized me my granny snuck back into the bathroom where I was getting dressed and handed me a little velvet box. Inside was a necklace that looked exactly like Rose's from the movie. I was wonderstruck. I have kept it and will someday pass it on to my daughter.
I could go on for days with many more special memories of my Granny but I will just leave you with these few. This will be another tough week for my family as my son Tristan under goes an intensive surgery to correct a birth defect he was born with. I know that my Granny will be watching over me and my little family and that brings me great peace. Rachel and I will be taking off another week of blogging. Rachel will be spending some quality time with her mother and I will be focusing on my little man. We will be back sometime next week and will get back on track with our usual crochet, sewing, painting and quilting. Until next time
-Haley
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