Saying Goodbye

My grandma passed away last week. She fell after Thanksgiving and broke her hip. She was doing really well until the last day. She had moved to a nursing home for rehab and had been enjoying the people there. Then on Jan. 3rd her body just gave up. She went into kidney failure and heart failure and died that evening around 9 o'clock.

(This picture is of her with my now 4 year old. We were visiting her on Christmas and a few of the somewhere around 70 family stockings are hanging in the background.)

I had been to visit her in the hospital a couple of times with my little one. She really enjoyed the visits and loved watching him climb around the room. "He's such a smart baby. And so beautiful. All of our babies are beautiful!" She never let an opportunity pass to brag on her great-grandson to the hospital staff.

My grandma was a very giving person. Every Christmas she still had gifts in stockings (that she had hand-stitched and decorated) at her house for each of her 4 daughters and their families, which was no small thing. She had 22 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren! What a legacy to leave. Her family was very important to her and we all knew she took pride in being our grandma.

Her funeral services were a great celebration of her life. All but two of her grandchildren were present, most with their families. The two who couldn't make it live out of the country, in Mexico and Japan. We shared many memories of family events at her home, times with grandpa and grandma centered around the pride of being part of such a great family. I'm going to miss her presence here when we gather now. I had a really wonderful grandma.