I remember November 18, 2009 like it was yesterday when we were celebrating her 94th.
All the kids were there, the grand kids were there well, that would be mine. For her, celebrating her last birthday included her grandson, her great grand daughters, her great grand son, 4 great great grandsons and a great great grand daughter, Vic, Marc and James..........
Yes we were all there in a 300 square foot room with a love seat, 2 rockers and a drop leaf dining table and 2 chairs, having a great time with someone that will never fade from my memory,
Someone that I never saw get mad, never heard her say a cuss word (well, I thought she did when I was 7 and I heard her say the world "Hell" in church)
Someone that had a special china hutch (mine now) that she kept toys in for my brother and I (Kevin's were on the right side lower shelf behind a locked glass door, and mine were on the left) there were two drawers with more pencils than any school would ever have and playing cards for the wild pitch games.
Someone that had seen it all, raised on a farm in Garden Plain, rode a horse drawn buggy to the big town of Wichita on Douglas to see her friends and go to dances, showed all the "big city" kids what it was like to be on a farm when they would come out from Wichita, carved ice out of the creek, finally moved to the big city, worked at the old county hospital, raised my mom and uncle and insisted that I learn to sew on a button (Kurt you never know when you'll have a button pop off and not have me there to sew it back on for you)
Someone that let my brother and I spent the night there probably as many nights as we spent at our own house, with the only rules being...........be quiet during the Lawrence Welk show and......be sure to put your toys back when you were finished playing with them.
Someone that every time we would get together over the past few years it was always filled with "tell us about the old times granny", taking walks around the assisted living building and playing domino's, the winner would get a quarter and I think I won a total of 8 games over 7 years. (here's a tip, never and I mean never play double 12's domino's with 3 ladies over the age of 80 and expect to win)
Someone who's biggest concerns the last couple of years of her life were "why am I still alive, he must have a plan for me" and "where are my doilies"
Someone that never told me what the term "I'll be jiggered" means
My favorite conversation on her last birthday went something like this,,,,,,,
G - How old was your mother when she died Kurt?
K - 72 Granny
G - That was sure young, and how old are you now?
K - 52 a couple months ago
G - Well, you're just a kid!
I guess in the grand scheme of things, 52 was pretty damn young, and I still felt like I was that little boy every time we were around her.
We knew something wasn't right that night when we asked her if she wanted to go play domino's or go sit in the day room when her comment was, no I'm just so tired, that wasn't like her at all, she was the most active lady in the place and at 94 she was at least 15 years younger than the 80 year olds.
20 days later I guess someone decided it was time for her to go take care of my mom, but before she left she had these parting words to my uncle, "Mom, you doing ok?" Yea, I'm doing ok, I can't complain"
That was my granny, never complained, always had a smile on her face, a bounce in her step and could out walk me on any given day and kick my young butt in a a game of pitch or domino's.
I'm just sayin, that if you've got a granny that's still around my advice is......Go see her, talk to her, have her tell you who all the people are in the old black and white photos, ask her to tell you about the "good ole days", savor the time you have with her and burn the memories in you head, you never know how much longer you'll have her.........
I miss you every day,,,,,,,
