December was a month of loss. My good friend's mother passed, a colleague of mine died of a sudden heart attack, and my Grandmother passed away on December 26th.
In my fifth year of living outside of the United States, this is the closest death that has happened while I was away. My heart breaks for my Grandma and the suffering that she went through during her final days, weeks, and months. I knew my Grandma was surrounded by love and faith during her final days, and that gave me comfort while I was time zones away.
My Grandma was a hard worker, animal lover, flower specialist, and family supporter. Some of my earliest memories of my Grandma are of her washing the barn walls and the pipeline. Washing walls in the barn is about as fun as cleaning mold in monsoon in India-except worse. Although, I know my Grandma had done many jobs in her life as a mother and farmer that far exceeded the struggles of washing walls. She enjoyed sharing with me the stories of power outages from storms, dog shenanigans, crazy neighbors, and milking the cows. She came to the barn and cleaned, until she couldn't. It might be why I always thought it was important to clean the pipeline and walls because I knew she would want it that way. Even when I was little, weak, and tired easily, I would clean one or two sections of the walls and give up until next year when I would clean the same two sections.
Grandma loved her dogs, cats, birds, and any other breathing creature. While it was unacceptable to accidentally mow or trim any flowers in her yard, if the beloved Xena put her big ole butt in the flower bed for a snooze, all was forgiven. The cats that came to dine at Grandma's were never short of food or quality. The pans never emptied because my Grandma worried the cats would cross the road for food and get hit by a car or worse end up at the neighbors.
She had an extraordinary garden that looked like it was in a home and garden magazine. She knew the names of all the flowers and how to care for each plant to make it through Minnesota winters. As mentioned, her love of cats and dogs may have trumped her love of flowers, but it was rare the day that a beautiful arrangement of flowers did not brighten her smile.
And above all things, my Grandma loved her family. Her worries were usually focused on my Grandpa-much to his dismay, but her worries also surrounded the wellbeing of her entire family: have you eaten? are you working? is your hip hurting? did you eat enough? did the hay get done? And don't even bother lying to Grandma to spare her worry.She knows. She knew.
Delivering Grandma good news was its own reward. I'd find myself searching around the farm for signs of life and growth that would relieve some of her worries. We finished the hay, a cow had a baby heifer, Kyle's putting the wagons in the shed, and Dad's milking is about as good of news to my Grandma as finding out you just won the record Powerball of $1.3 billion.
Watching my Grandma over the past few years has been hard, but I know that she stuck around to share in the many gifts that continued to bless our family. Great grand babies were coming at rates that made names hard to keep track of, but she held many and proudly displayed all of their pictures. She also got to meet one of the most important people in my life: Anwer.
She loved whole heartedly and lived with passion, and I am so lucky to have had such a passionate and loving role model in my life.
In my fifth year of living outside of the United States, this is the closest death that has happened while I was away. My heart breaks for my Grandma and the suffering that she went through during her final days, weeks, and months. I knew my Grandma was surrounded by love and faith during her final days, and that gave me comfort while I was time zones away.
My Grandma was a hard worker, animal lover, flower specialist, and family supporter. Some of my earliest memories of my Grandma are of her washing the barn walls and the pipeline. Washing walls in the barn is about as fun as cleaning mold in monsoon in India-except worse. Although, I know my Grandma had done many jobs in her life as a mother and farmer that far exceeded the struggles of washing walls. She enjoyed sharing with me the stories of power outages from storms, dog shenanigans, crazy neighbors, and milking the cows. She came to the barn and cleaned, until she couldn't. It might be why I always thought it was important to clean the pipeline and walls because I knew she would want it that way. Even when I was little, weak, and tired easily, I would clean one or two sections of the walls and give up until next year when I would clean the same two sections.
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| Xena visits Grandma, one of the times I'm glad my Mom is such a photo clicking machine-Thanks Mom for capturing this memory! |
Grandma loved her dogs, cats, birds, and any other breathing creature. While it was unacceptable to accidentally mow or trim any flowers in her yard, if the beloved Xena put her big ole butt in the flower bed for a snooze, all was forgiven. The cats that came to dine at Grandma's were never short of food or quality. The pans never emptied because my Grandma worried the cats would cross the road for food and get hit by a car or worse end up at the neighbors.
She had an extraordinary garden that looked like it was in a home and garden magazine. She knew the names of all the flowers and how to care for each plant to make it through Minnesota winters. As mentioned, her love of cats and dogs may have trumped her love of flowers, but it was rare the day that a beautiful arrangement of flowers did not brighten her smile.
And above all things, my Grandma loved her family. Her worries were usually focused on my Grandpa-much to his dismay, but her worries also surrounded the wellbeing of her entire family: have you eaten? are you working? is your hip hurting? did you eat enough? did the hay get done? And don't even bother lying to Grandma to spare her worry.
Delivering Grandma good news was its own reward. I'd find myself searching around the farm for signs of life and growth that would relieve some of her worries. We finished the hay, a cow had a baby heifer, Kyle's putting the wagons in the shed, and Dad's milking is about as good of news to my Grandma as finding out you just won the record Powerball of $1.3 billion.
Watching my Grandma over the past few years has been hard, but I know that she stuck around to share in the many gifts that continued to bless our family. Great grand babies were coming at rates that made names hard to keep track of, but she held many and proudly displayed all of their pictures. She also got to meet one of the most important people in my life: Anwer.
She loved whole heartedly and lived with passion, and I am so lucky to have had such a passionate and loving role model in my life.
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| Many of the grandkids and grand babies-not all. |
