Our Beloved GG

This is a hard post to write but an important one.

The world and we lost a very wonderful woman on January 11, 2014 at the age of 89...She was surrounded by loved ones at her bedside as she took her last breath. Either my mom, dad, myself, brother, aunt, uncle, cousins, friends, mentors, music therapists and/or pastors were by her side all day for the week after her stroke before her passing. No one ever slept over at the nursing home but everyone stayed late and got there as early as they wanted to or could. It was a time to reminisce, play games, listen to music, talk to her and hold her hand. She was comfortable and slept when she needed to, gave a smile here or there and seemed at peace and ready to go see grandpa.

One night when I was there we watched Wheel of Fortune...that was one of MANY memories I have with her. Watching Wheel of Fortune after dinner over there. I will always remember Grandma's smile, her big heart always helping others and her faith. She was always welcoming friends and family into her home for a meal or coffee or to just stop and say hi. Family and traditions were soooo important to her and will always be to me too. We had plenty with her...Christmas Eve at her and grandpa's church and then Christmas Chicken at their house afterwards with ALL the cousins and then we would go home in jammies given to us by them. My parents now carry on that tradition :) We would see them every holiday and birthday. Grandma would always make something yummy. We would have Easter egg hunts, bake Christmas cookies, play lots of cards, scrabble and sometimes just simply hang out. We would make lefse before Thanksgiving, freeze and then serve it on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I remember one of my first times helping I walked into to gma and gpa's house and the Christmas music was blasting and so much happiness was in their home. I hope we have that much in ours! They tried to take all their grandchildren to Disney World.  I will always remember our almost 20 trips to AZ to visit her and grandpa and go on many adventures. Her and grandpa helped move me to New Orleans. They came to every sporting event they could...from soccer games, to softball games, and even a cross country running race in college :)  They even let my friend and I into their mini van after an EXTREMELY muddy soccer tournament...if you want to call it a soccer tournament. I also remember going to casinos with grandma...maybe more for the buffets than gambling. There were a few camping trips together too and she always had a lovely garden full of raspberries and lots of veggies and flowers too:) Oh and how we loved garage saling and thrifting! After grandpa died I lived near her so I went over there at least once a week and helped with laundry and errands (she never drove).  We usually ate and played some Hand and Foot together as well. I always enjoyed these visits so much. Little House was on a lot so we would watch that which we both enjoyed so much. She always loved a good picnic for a family gathering or on our adventures in AZ. I remember her and my mom staying up late packing the lunch for the next day. When she moved to the Estates we moved most of our family gatherings there so we have plenty of memories of pizza parties or potlucks there in the basement, on the patio or in her lil room or a conference room. The kids really enjoyed running in the halls or around the room and looking at the fish. There were nice holiday parties put on by the estates too...Mother's Day and Christmas really stand out for me. She was always the last to bed and first to get up making sure everyone and everything was taken care of. She was so wonderful at taking care of everyone. She will be missed but always remembered.

I am so happy and blessed that Chris and I's girls got to know her and have her in their lives for a few years. I hope Linnea will remember her and we will always show Harper pictures and share our memories with her.  Here are a few of our favs of GG and our girls:

Mother's Day at the Estates when L was just a baby!

There a LOT more but these were some good ones I found...I have lots of albums I made for her that are now ours so we can look at them whenever we want.

Linnea was very worried about where GG was going and how she would get there. She was very sad she was going to pass away and that she would never hear her talk again. I assured her GG was going to heaven to be with grandpa and all her siblings and plenty of friends. As for how she was getting there...well that was a hard one. She told me she knew grandma couldn't get there in a car because she was too big :( I said she doesn't need a car she is in God's hands and his hands are big enough to hold her and all of us through this difficult time. I told her she would remember GG's voice or maybe she would hear it in dreams?? And then I immediately messaged a few pastor friends of mine because these were hard questions! And they were at bedtime right before I was heading out to see GG. Turns out I answered them about the same way they would have! Yay! And I strongly believe GG is up in heaven having a blast! She will be missed greatly especially on what would have been her 90th birthday coming up here on Feb 9th, and on the holidays but we will always have pictures and memories of her.

We really did have a wonderful celebration of her life. Our families from CO, WI and Utah all flew or drove in and some stayed with my parents and some stayed in a hotel. We spent the days before the visitation and funeral going through pictures and memories of her and her jewelry...which she really had a lot of!

 The jewelry and Linnea and Eloise showing them off :)

fashionistas in ggs fun jewelry!

We put together many poster boards of pictures capturing her at her best. The kids all had a great time playing together and us cousins had a good time catching up and being together too. We will continue to get together because we have such a blast and it would certainly make our grandparents happy.

There were even two more poster boards I think and plenty of photo books out that have been given to her from all of her children and grandchildren. She was one LOVED woman!

We found her and grandpa's wedding song so that was playing at the visitation and that paper in front is the lyrics :) Nice song.

Harper...the welcoming committee...or maybe she was trying to leave but at least she was wearing GG's fav color :)

After the funeral which was a very nice service by the way, we took lots of family pictures:

Look at this family! Grandma and Grandpa too while he was living loved to watch their family grow and meet all the new spouses and great grandchildren :) She had 16 great grandchildren and 10 grandchildren.

The cousins.

There were some of just GG's kids and spouses too but not on mine. I will try to get them on here eventually though.

After pictures we headed to the hotel where the CO crew was staying and we went swimming and ate lots of food. I think everything went the way GG would have wanted it too. Pickled Herring was even there (yuck!) but she always had it at the holidays :) I didn't try it. My cousin and I decided we didn't try it with her when she was alive we are not trying it now. She would understand.