Grandma…thank you for you love, undivided attention & gracious heart!
No matter the circumstance, death is never easy for the living.
I have this weird belief:
- You have great luck in money, not so much in life; or,
- You have great luck in life, not so much in money
Now, I believe these two can & often do come together, but many times we must go through some serious life lessons prior to one catching up to the other.
Our family has been pretty fortunate in life; not much death & able to continually build on the money thing. I personally have lost a very close friend, suddenly; now that, was one of my true internal changes in life. Loosing grandparents isn’t any easier & it feels close to the same; so when I received that call this morning, even though I knew it was coming, it hurt more than expected.
So, CELEBRATE LIFE, it ain’t that long & you never know when it’s over.
Some golden memories…
The Calgary stampede (in Canada for the geographically challenged); is one of the biggest rodeo’s in the world. I had a cowboy hat so worn, that a “real” cowboy on the plane ride up wanted to trade & I would have nothing to do with it.
Everyone knows rice crispy treats, sometimes even with chocolate on top. Well, we had something special; they were called WOW-WEES. Now this was not some dumb name we created, but that was what came out of my mouth when I saw them at 3 years old…”WOW-WEES!!!!” Man, I still remember them to this day. Not just the way they looked, tasted or smelled, but even the tray she always made them in.
One year we spent a week in Shreveport, LA with Ruby & LD Todd (aka Gma & Gpa Todd) & while my grandpa would be working away on his stain glass, grandma would be slaving away making us wonderful meals of just about anything you could imagine. Funny thing was, she did this for every meal. So when we wouldn’t eat everything, she would say, “you don’t eat like you do at home”, I could only reply, “grandma, you are too generous with your wonderful food!” Ok, I definitely wasn’t that well spoken, and truth be known, I probably couldn’t speak because I was sickly full!
These are just a couple of “my” fond memories, but the ones that make me well up with tears are the ones when I remember how over joyed she was to meet the great grandchildren. She was more than excited when we brought our first daughter Ryan over for an introduction; so excited that when Ryan was sleeping, she pinched her to wake up so she could hold & play with her…only a grandma would attempt that. Now, Ryan may never really understand what this meant, but MAN, what a sight & feeling to see 4 generations of women, side by side; pretty awesome.
Another side of grandma, from what I understand & all the stories, was that she sure had an iron hand…but hell, I don’t know, you will have to ask my mom & aunt Donna about that one. Or, perhaps the son-in-laws.
Now, I believe we are all energy and/or tied to energy, so perhaps this is my way of saying goodbye to live on in infamy. As they say…we will meet again!
Everyone misses & loves you very much, that, which we never lacked from you.
To learn more, visit ldtodd.com
