Thanks for the last hurrah, Summer. See you next year!
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Indian Summer in St. Louis
This weekend we took a road trip to St. Louis to visit Mel's sister, brother-in-law and our niece and nephew. It was fantastic. We always have such a nice time together. There was grilling, relaxing on the porch, seeing butterflies at a butterfly house, looking for fossils and geodes by a river, skipping rocks, playing with the kids and reading bedtime stories. All in gloriously warm weather more reminiscent of July than October.
Thanks for the last hurrah, Summer. See you next year!
Thanks for the last hurrah, Summer. See you next year!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
My grandma
Hi everyone, I have returned from my trip to New Mexico. On Thursday evening I found out that one day before my flight to see her, my grandmother passed away. She had family surrounding her in her last days. She died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 96.
As I'm sure you can guess, I was sad, frustrated and disappointed that I didn't make it in time to say goodbye. But as my mom told me on the phone when I called to tell her, "You don't have to be there in person to say goodbye." And that's true. (As an aside, my grandma once noted to me, "I must have done something right, as I have two ex daughters-in-law who still write!")
The weekend, however, was not sad. I had a really enjoyable drive from Albuquerque to Los Alamos with two of my cousins, and we stopped for dinner in Santa Fe and toasted our grandmother over a margarita and New Mexican cuisine. We shared lots of funny stories. This was a woman who was by and large healthy as a horse pretty much until her final days. A woman who purportedly told her doctor when being admitted to the hospital to have her hip replacement surgery some years ago that she hadn't been admitted to the hospital since she broke her arm when she was 13 and fell off her horse, and no, being in the hospital to give birth three times apparently didn't count. She was very intelligent, graduating from high school at the age of 16 in 1931, going on to teach in a one room school house until she entered college two years later. She was the most voracious reader you ever did see. I don't think she ever uttered a curse word her entire life (hot weather was even "hotter than Hades" to her). She was active in her church, her college sorority and her community well into her 80s. She once credited her good health to water exercise classes (take note!). I swear she didn't have a mean bone in her body. Everyone she ever knew was the better for it.
The family gathered at my uncle and aunt's house on Saturday for a very informal memorial. I saw cousins I rarely get to see, and everyone shared stories. I heard about her making my uncles strip naked when they got sprayed in the face by a skunk, while she buried their clothes and everything on them at the time (including my uncle's best Roy Rogers cap gun) in the backyard and my dad, the youngest of the three brothers, laughed hysterically from safe inside. I heard about her riding her horse, Bess, to school everyday. We told funny grandma-isms and other family stories. And we all remembered her cooking fondly (well, except a couple of aspic dishes). The whole weekend I wore her wedding ring and smiled whenever I thought of her. I think we all did.
It was a long life, well lived, full of health, good friends and family. She will be missed, but we're all thankful to have had so many years to enjoy our time with her.
I'll leave you with one of my favorite photos. Little baby me and my Grandma Nella Mae. It makes me smile. :)
As I'm sure you can guess, I was sad, frustrated and disappointed that I didn't make it in time to say goodbye. But as my mom told me on the phone when I called to tell her, "You don't have to be there in person to say goodbye." And that's true. (As an aside, my grandma once noted to me, "I must have done something right, as I have two ex daughters-in-law who still write!")
The weekend, however, was not sad. I had a really enjoyable drive from Albuquerque to Los Alamos with two of my cousins, and we stopped for dinner in Santa Fe and toasted our grandmother over a margarita and New Mexican cuisine. We shared lots of funny stories. This was a woman who was by and large healthy as a horse pretty much until her final days. A woman who purportedly told her doctor when being admitted to the hospital to have her hip replacement surgery some years ago that she hadn't been admitted to the hospital since she broke her arm when she was 13 and fell off her horse, and no, being in the hospital to give birth three times apparently didn't count. She was very intelligent, graduating from high school at the age of 16 in 1931, going on to teach in a one room school house until she entered college two years later. She was the most voracious reader you ever did see. I don't think she ever uttered a curse word her entire life (hot weather was even "hotter than Hades" to her). She was active in her church, her college sorority and her community well into her 80s. She once credited her good health to water exercise classes (take note!). I swear she didn't have a mean bone in her body. Everyone she ever knew was the better for it.
The family gathered at my uncle and aunt's house on Saturday for a very informal memorial. I saw cousins I rarely get to see, and everyone shared stories. I heard about her making my uncles strip naked when they got sprayed in the face by a skunk, while she buried their clothes and everything on them at the time (including my uncle's best Roy Rogers cap gun) in the backyard and my dad, the youngest of the three brothers, laughed hysterically from safe inside. I heard about her riding her horse, Bess, to school everyday. We told funny grandma-isms and other family stories. And we all remembered her cooking fondly (well, except a couple of aspic dishes). The whole weekend I wore her wedding ring and smiled whenever I thought of her. I think we all did.
It was a long life, well lived, full of health, good friends and family. She will be missed, but we're all thankful to have had so many years to enjoy our time with her.
I'll leave you with one of my favorite photos. Little baby me and my Grandma Nella Mae. It makes me smile. :)
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Happy Birthday, Grandma!
Today is my grandmother's 96th birthday. Isn't that wonderful?
It's always easy to remember someone's birthday when it falls on a holiday. Of course, there was the year that my grandfather spaced out exactly which holiday her birthday fell on. Instead of wishing her a happy birthday on St. Patrick's Day, he did it a month earlier on Valentine's Day. My grandparents were happily married for over 50 years, and my grandfather died when I was still school-aged, but I believe my grandmother is still cranky about that birthday flub over 40 years after the fact!
My grandma Nella Mae lives in New Mexico, where most of my Dad's family has settled over the years. It was a favorite vacation spot for my grandparents and their three sons in the 1950s. They lived in Kansas and would spend summers enjoying the outdoors in New Mexico, unlike most everyone else who enjoyed the outdoors in Colorado. (Which, I believe, is exactly why my grandfather picked New Mexico.) They even built a cabin there. Slowly over the years all three sons moved there and my grandparents retired there. My dad is the most recent addition to the state. There are several places on this planet that I really adore, and New Mexico is right up there on that list.
Here's a photo of her with her boys taken in 1950. The back of the photo was labeled "Christmas vacation, Nyack, NY 1950". My dad is the crabby looking one-year-old in the middle, in the earflap hat. I love how my grandma looks stylish yet casual. That's always been her way. Feminine but not fussy. I guess that's one thing I really learned from her!
Happy Birthday, Grandma!
It's always easy to remember someone's birthday when it falls on a holiday. Of course, there was the year that my grandfather spaced out exactly which holiday her birthday fell on. Instead of wishing her a happy birthday on St. Patrick's Day, he did it a month earlier on Valentine's Day. My grandparents were happily married for over 50 years, and my grandfather died when I was still school-aged, but I believe my grandmother is still cranky about that birthday flub over 40 years after the fact!
My grandma Nella Mae lives in New Mexico, where most of my Dad's family has settled over the years. It was a favorite vacation spot for my grandparents and their three sons in the 1950s. They lived in Kansas and would spend summers enjoying the outdoors in New Mexico, unlike most everyone else who enjoyed the outdoors in Colorado. (Which, I believe, is exactly why my grandfather picked New Mexico.) They even built a cabin there. Slowly over the years all three sons moved there and my grandparents retired there. My dad is the most recent addition to the state. There are several places on this planet that I really adore, and New Mexico is right up there on that list.
Here's a photo of her with her boys taken in 1950. The back of the photo was labeled "Christmas vacation, Nyack, NY 1950". My dad is the crabby looking one-year-old in the middle, in the earflap hat. I love how my grandma looks stylish yet casual. That's always been her way. Feminine but not fussy. I guess that's one thing I really learned from her!
Happy Birthday, Grandma!
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