Goodbye For Now

My sweet Grandma, Virginia Child passed away last night. All though it is very hard to say goodbye, I know she is in a much better place. She has been freed from the limitations that old age had placed on her and for that I am so grateful.

I wish I had more pictures of her with my kids, but this is one of my all time favorites anyways. Cody with Great Grandma Child.

My Grandma absolutely adored her Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren. It is what she lived for!! She was always the first person I would take my new babies to visit because she just absolutely adored them. She always got the biggest kick out of the kids and loved nothing more than for them to come to her house and play with toys in the front room, just so she could watch them. She always thought that everything they did was so cute and absolutely HILARIOUS.

I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with my Grandma when I was little. I have so many funny memories of her and the crazy stuff she would make me do. Like send me into a store and make me pay in nothing but change while she waited for me in the car. I can laugh about it now, but back then it made me so mad because it was so embarrassing!! But now I can count out change like nobodies business. Little did I know she was teaching me a valuable lesson.

I always loved spending time with her because she had an amazing way of making you feel like you were extra special, and I think that she honestly felt that way about ALL of her grandchildren. She made the biggest deal out of even the smallest accomplishments. She loved to tell everybody about all of the wonderful things that her Grandkids were doing. And she was always so concerned for the well being and safety of her family. She is the one who taught me "stranger danger" among many other things such as proper table manners and correct grammar. (maybe should have paid a little better attention to some of those).

She was always willing to help me out with a sewing project. She loved to teach me how to cook. We always had sugar cookie parties and gingerbread house parties at her house with all of the cousins. She always loved to get together with ALL of the extended family (like my moms cousins) and have a little get together in the summer, we called it a "Cousin Party." The last one I remember of those was when I had very first started dating Russ and everybody was giving me a hard time about my boyfriend and wondering when the wedding was going to be. I refused to give them too much information (mostly because I didn't have much to give, we hadn't even discussed marriage), and instead just avoided the subject while patiently waiting for him to call me, like he was suppose to. Oh my goodness, my maturity level at that point was astounding!!! HAHA!! But my sweet Grandma could tell that I was uncomfortable and didn't want to talk about it, so she sent me into the house on an errand to get me out of the situation. Of course she asked me all the same questions in private because she wanted to know, but didn't figure it was anybodies else's business. She was the best Grandma ever, and I felt comfortable telling her anything, except that my wedding ring got stolen right out of my house after she had already taught me about stranger danger... I just forgot to send Russ the memo!!!

Another funny thing that I will always remember is that she LOVED going to family reunions, but my mom was usually working. So my mom would send us with my grandparents to the reunions. We would alway stop at KFC and grab a bucket of chicken to take with us. When we got there she would take like a billion napkins and squeeze the grease out of the chicken and take most of the breading off before letting us eat it. She was afraid to feed us so much grease and fat. I always wondered why we didn't just get something different, cuz it sure seemed a lot easier than picking pieces of greasy napkin out of my chicken leg. LOL!! Little did I know that she was so smart to be worried about all the grease. To this day I still like KFC but I get a gut ache when I eat the greasy fried chicken, she was just saving me from an upset stomach!!

I am so grateful for all the memories that my Grandma created for me. So many of the memories that I have from childhood were made possible by her because she was so dedicated to making sure we all knew who our cousins were and that we were close as a family. I thank my Grandma for the fact that all of my cousins truly are my friends because of the amount of time I was able to spend with them making memories in her backyard having water fights and playing "kick the can" and "no bears out tonight."

Some of the memories that stand out the most are centered around the 4th of July, which was her all time favorite holiday. My Grandma was very patriotic and she took great strides to make sure our Independence Day celebration was extra special. She wanted to ensure that we understood the importance of freedom and the sacrifices made by many so that we could live in this great nation. To this day, the 4th of July is my most favorite holiday to celebrate and I keep a little bit of it in my home all year round.

I will miss seeing her and taking my kids to visit her. Both my boys always had so much fun playing with the toys at her house, mostly because they had Great Grandma as an attentive audience. She was so content to just watch them play and talk to them and make a big deal out of every little thing they did. She found endless amounts of joy and humor in the little kids.

Even though I am sad that she is gone... I can't help but think to myself that she is the lucky one!! She is now with her parents and siblings and so many other family members who have passed on before her. It kind of feels selfish to cry and be upset because I know that I am only sad for myself that she is gone. Oh well, I'll have a good cry anyways and at the same time, feel joy in the fact that she is now comfortable in a Heavenly home.