Happy Birthday, Grandma! You are missed!

Today is my Grandma's birthday. She's been gone 4-1/2 months now and still deeply missed. There are so many times I started a letter to her with a cute kid story...only to remember she was no longer with us in person.

My aunt went through old slides of my grandparents and digitized them. What a wonderful treasure...THANK YOU Aunt Carol!


I'd never seen this picture of my grandmother before. She grew up in a world that I often thought was so old fashioned but I now realize was so rich in history.


She grew up in a large family in West Virginia. I believe she's the little girl in the front row in the plaid skirt. She was the youngest daughter with 9 siblings.


She met her husband when he was in her hometown working as an engineer on the Bluestone Dam. They had a 50 year marriage!


She had a great laugh! That's my Aunt Carol behind her. :)


Next to God, family was the most important thing in her life.


She loved it as her family grew. My sister is the baby on Grandma's lap and I'm the little girl in front. I think I was jealous that Kristin got to sit on Grandma's lap!

Here she is at my parent's wedding. My dad's parents had both died by this point and my grandmother took my dad in as her own. They had such a great mother-in-law/son-in-law relationship. And, wasn't my mom a beautiful bride?


Holding me! :)

My grandmother made so many outfits for us when we were little. I'm in the yellow dress and Kristin is in the blue. Kristin went through a phase where she would LITERALLY look UP when someone said "Look up for the picture!" Isn't she cute!?

And a little less cute with those 80's hair and XXXL sweaters! Grandma lived with my parents for years after I graduated from college. I loved coming home to not just my parents, but my grandmother was well. She took such good care of us...care packages at college, our favorites foods when we came home to visit, always a craft project on which she wanted our help. And see Eric poking his there in back. He was her ONLY grandson. And did she ever dote on him. She lived with my family during his teenage years and they had an amazingly special relationship. The only time I've ever seen him cry was at her funeral when he got up to talk about his special grandmother.

This is my favorite picture of my grandparents. This is how they look in my mind. A few years after this picture was taken, my grandfather got sick and his health went downhill for 8 years. My grandmother had a tough road during those years as she struggled to keep him at home and maintain his care.

And speaking of my grandfather, I just love this picture! (Yup, me again!) My grandfather was so insanely smart that he could have been very intimidating. He taught college phyics in his spare time and was an electrical engineer at GE working on the first generation of color TV. I was smart enough to never even TAKE college physics! :)

This is my mom's graduation from Wheaton College. My grandmother watched 2 of her kids and 3 of her grandkids graduate from this same college. I believe the story was that she wanted to go to college but her father saw no need to educate girls beyond high school. Education was very important to her and she was so very proud of all the various degrees her kids and grandkids earned.

And how could I mention my grandma without thinking of SNOW....lots and lots and lots of SNOW!

Christmas was her favorite time of year. I still have this dollhouse in my house. It's now 30 years old (gulp!) and in pretty rough shape, but I can't bear to part with it! My grandparents put it together by hand and I remember my grandmother's willingness to get down on the floor and play with us. Christmas was a magical time with emormous amounts of food, gifts and laughter.
Thanks, Carol, for unearthing these awesome pictures!!! What a great walk down memory lane! My grandmother is missed but my faith tells me I will see her again. Our family is so fortunate to have had such a strong foundation.

Goodbye to Grandma Carson

Grandma's funeral was today in Maine. I'm exhausted from the emotions and logistics of flying out and back. It was great to see my Maine relatives and the service was truly a celebration of her life.


Back in 1995 I sat down with Grandma and a grandmother remembers type of book. I turned on the video camera, asked questions and simply recorded her responses. The book provided the structure of the interview and the actual questions. I then took the video and transcribed it to provide each relative a taped and written copy. I loved the history of my grandmother's life and enjoyed doing that project. Now, 14 years, 3 moves and 2 kids later, I had all but forgotten it. Someone in Maine pulled it out, we printed it up and have been pouring over her story all week. In it, she was asked about her favorite hymns, scripture passages, advice she'd leave for family members, etc. What was a simple project so many years ago meant to satisify my curiousity over her history turned into a treasured resource today (to me at least!) If any of you have older relatives, I'd encourage you to consider such a project. There are so many memories that fade over time and this helps record some of those precious times.

Another project that turned into a treasure this week was a project my cousins and I worked on a few years back for Grandma's Christmas gift. We all wrote down memories of our grandparents and sent her a memory box containing 365 slips of paper. She was to read one a day for the year so she'd know how much she had impacted our lives. It was so fun to read back through those memories.

Lots of good memories, lots of pouring over photos, lots of time with beloved cousins and aunts and an uncle. I'm tired. I'm emotionally spent. The service was rough; really rough. I witnessed my brother cry for the first time in my life (and he's 31). But it was such a wonderful tribute to a woman who affected so many lives.

And apparently she's celebrating a little too much in Heaven right now and not paying attention to cheering on the 'Cuse....cuz they are losing badly!!!

Sadness...much celebration...a bit of laughter....

Sadness:

My beloved grandmother passed away tonight. She was 92 years old and it wasn't unexpected, but it was still a shock. My grandparents were a big part of my childhood and I will greatly miss her on this earth. Heaven is rejoicing while we come to terms with waiting to see her again.


Much Celebration:

My grandmother had a love for her family that was unmatched. After every family outing, she'd love to stop by Friendly's (restaurant in upstate NY) and get ice cream. My sister and I decided to honor that memory and met for ice cream late this evening. We cried some tears but laughed at so many memories involving Grandma. She was an amazing woman who taught me so much about faith and caring for others.

My grandmother LOVED Perry and I knew he was a keeper when I brought him home to meet my parents and he fell in love with Grandma. One of her greatest enjoyments was watching sports on TV (and attending the Syracuse-West Virginia games in person). Perry, being a sports nut himself, would watch the games with her...and, unlike me, actually be able to hold an intelligent conversation with her about any game, any sport.


My brother Eric was her only grandson and years younger than most of the other grandkids. Grandma moved in with my parents during the years that my sister and I moved out to college. Eric and Grandma developed such a tight bond. His long hair in high school drove her nuts (she got him a hair trimming kit for Christmas one year and only she could have gotten away with that!); but, short of cutting his mophead, he would have done anything for her and she would have done anything for him.

This picture was taken at my brother's wedding. We were all interested in getting a picture of her with all her great-grandchildren. She was more interested in hearing what the kids had to say. I remember being frustrated at not getting a better picture, but now, this is one of my favorite pictures of her (Carson is the kiddo in the yellow/blue plaid vest).

For only having one grandson, Grandma ended up with mostly all boys in the next generation of grandkids. Up until Elise came along, Darcy was her only great-granddaughter. Darcy was fortunate enough to live near Grandma for many years and they have a very special relationship.

I'm so glad we spent time with Grandma in Maine last summer. Having lived near her during my childhood, it was really hard to not see her as often in my adult years. I missed her terribly and often let life get in the way of keeping in touch with her better than I should have. We all really enjoyed our time with her last summer.

The kids really developed some very strong memories of their Great-Grandma Carson on this visit. They were both so saddened to hear of her passing because they knew what an amazing Grandma she was; they loved the time the spent with her last summer.

A bit of laughter:

Elise saw my tear stained face at one point this evening and asked why my nose was all red. I told her it was because I'd been crying. She asked, "So, are you going to look like Rudolph every time someone dies?!?" It was just the thing to turn my tears into laughter.

I will hug my loved ones a bit closer today as I remember that each day is a gift.