Granny

My grandma would have been 89 years old yesterday.

I loved my grandma dearly. I always felt we had a special connection.

When I was really little, she would rock me to sleep in her big blue chair. She would chase me out of the kitchen when I went into to grab a pickle... no matter where she was in the house, she could hear her fridge open as we dove into it for one last pickle...

Her kitchen was HER spot... it wasn't big enough for anybody but her. If you got permission to
be in her kitchen, it was quite the privilege.

My favorite nook in her house was behind her big blue chair. A bookshelf, her chair, and an end table would form the perfect little spot behind her chair... and the bookshelf was full of great books, books we read over and over again, books we came to love.

I remember her room... Her closet held about every single color of high heel shoe. Every color imaginable! Being a little girl, looking in and seeing yellow, orange, and purple shoes... oh! It was very exciting.

I remember going to church with grandma. She had so many friends. I loved to meet her friends in her sunday school class. I came to love Hattie Belle and Lois Gray. I loved how social she was. I loved how important her friends were to her. I love to sit next to her in church and hear her sing... at the top of her lungs, loud, and not always on key (perhaps I got my lack of musical ability passed on from her...) but I know without a doubt that her singing was a sweet sound in His ear.

I remember the room that us girls would sleep in.. it used to be my mom's room. I remember the picture on the wall of Jesus walking up to the door and knocking... I loved this picture. I told her I loved it and I wanted it. I loved how the plants around the door formed the shape of a heart, and so this door symbolized the door to our heart. I loved how there was no doorknob on this door.... that it stood as a reminder that He would stand and knock, but that we had a responsibility to answer His call. Years later, when grandma had passed and we were going through her house, we took the picture off the wall, and my name was there. She had planned to give it to me all along.

I remember how grandma would talk so loudly... she told us that we should come up with a sign to do in public to let her know that she needed to talk a little more quietly. But then when we did this sign.... instead of lowering her volume, she would just explain it to the salesperson or waitress who was helping us, thereby completing negating the need or purpose of the secret sign in the first place!!!

I remember a trip to Blockbuster to rent a movie...everyone went in but us; we stayed in the car to chat. And we talked about boys, and I loved that we could talk about boys.

I remember her sleeping in my room when Austin was born. I remember she laid certain clothes out that she would wear to the hospital (a Glorieta sweatshirt and a pair of jeans... ). I remember waking up and those clothes being gone, knowing my sweet brother was on the way....

I remember a trip to Salado when we shared a hotel room... and she got very sick.

I remember a trip to spend the night with her in the hospital. I remember not being able to sleep that night at the hospital. Her breathing was so deep and so heavy and so slow. There was just enough time in between each breath to wonder if it had been her last. It never was her last... at least not that night...

I remember making a special trip up to the hospital to look her in the eyes, and tell her how much I loved her.... to be sure that she was sure of my love for her.