My sweet grandmother passed away last week. She had a severe stroke at age 92. They found she was retaining nutrients and was excreting it and that he body was slowly shutting down. It was just time so they sent her home with her sweetheart of 69 years and she passed away surrounded by family. She lived through complete poverty for most of her life and the depression. She had a large family and her father died when she was 16 which was a devastating thing for a family back there. She bore 12 children and 3 girls have died and I'm sure greeted her on the other side of the veil. When Grandpa saw her take her last breath he said, "oh how wonderful!" She worked hard and served because it was her duty to and never took a second thought as to what she needs to get done or help out with.
We got to be with the Staley's for 24 hours before we traveled over the AZ. It was so fun and Brynlee was in heaven with Jason. Dev and I love love talking and being with Brittany and Brent. Who would have thought they would come here!!!! The kids did great for basically getting no sleep the whole weekend.
There are 17 siblings, 88 grandkids and 212 great grandkids and the majority of them came. It was so fun. The family is extremely extremely musical and it was so fun singing and laughing with everyone. I probably won't see them all together ever again. Reunions as getting to be too much for the planners. We had a family prayer, then beautiful happy funeral service with 3 amazing musical numbers of the grandkids, daughters and siblings/spouses. Then we went to the gravesite for like 5 minutes (it was 108 degrees during nap time) and finally back to the church for a lunch and to socialize. Poor Andersens that had to feed our family of over 300! Then a few cousins came over to the Soelbergs (Shelle and Dave - the best hosts in the world) where we were staying and we stayed up laughing. Sunday we went to our greenfield ward and then left for the cabin in pine.
After the funeral we got to go with Braiden to get his endowments out for his mission in a few weeks. This was the last time we were going to see him before he leaves so we were soaking up all the time with him. I wish I got more pictures of him with the kids. It was so so fun to be there with him and his big eyes during the session and then go to Dairy Queen after! Thanks Kiri for watching the kids!
This is a picture of all the cousins my age. We are missing Trent and Dave. So fun to see them. I miss them already and I definitely didn't get enough time with each of them dangit.
They had all of grandma's stuff out on tables at her house to grab something to remember her by. Yard and yard of fabric, yarn and spools! I didn't know what to choose but I knew I wanted to get a few pictures of their house and the hundreds of memories that I have there growing up.
This is the gold room! With gold walls, carpet and furniture! It is the front room and I learned not to take things from the crystal lamp by the couch! I had to give it back to my grandma and say sorry. Her face ... it was horrible!!! I was so embarrassed!
We used to spend hours at this mirror making our selves look like we are flying and fat and skinny. Then we would turn around and draw on their chalkboard and play games with dad.
We would spend hours picking their orange and lemon and grapefruit trees. We would play red rover, capture the flag, etc all night for family night with all our cousins. We would also spent hours in their trees in the very back of the yard.
I remember helping and watch grandma hang her laundry on the line and crack and pick pecans with her from her tree under the big tree. I also remember jumping into big piles of leaves in the fall.
At Pine it was just another flood of memories These signs mark the road to the cabin and the end of my car sickness as a little girl!
These swings are so fun! They are on a giant chain and big hill so you can get going pretty high. But it was fun to figure out how to twirl all the swings together. I remember doing bungie cords up at the top in the volleyball court. And taking turns on the pulley swing for hours. I hated it when it was my turn to haul someone back up to the top. I remember making huts all over the hill and hiking to the top with the wild pigs. I remember bumper cars in the tire swings with the boy cousins and pancakes on the hill in the ramata. We played some fun games of mafia, rook, and 21 in that ramata. We also had fun reunion games in the pasture and late fun nights in the 4 bunk-beds in the basement. We used to sleep on the porch when it rained and then pull taffy with grandma. There used to be an infestation of daddy long legs in the cabin - it was bad. But sleeping in the loft or upstairs porches had the least amount of bugs. Of course there are lots of memories playing basketball and going on walks to the meadow and creek. I was bummed there were any wild raspberries or blackberries to pick but we sure had a fun time and all these memories were fun to re-live.
This is the big family room and it was so fun to have just our family up there and later have grandpa join us. For family we played a hilarious game of newley weds with the Shaws, Honns, Gneitins, and newly engaged couple!! Grandpa asked some pretty tough questions! Apparently the longer you are married the worse you become at this game!
There was of course lots of basketball played this weekend. We will miss playing with Braiden.
Brynlee was in-separable with Grandma and Grandpa. She wanted to drive with them, walk with them, stand by them, etc. She had a blast and the third day we were there Callen started warming up to everyone. Just in time to leave!
We went to Tontos National Park Natural Bridge. It was really fun to get wet and climb around. I can't wait to see everyone in Idaho in a few weeks! We had a blast and I feel so grateful to the hosts and silent servers that helped the weekend take place for so many people. What a great legacy my grandma left. I feels so weird that she is gone and I"ll never see her again but there are no negative or sad feelings. I'm just so happy for her!
No comments:
Post a Comment