My Grandma Rose

My most favorite person in the world passed away today at the age of 93. I'm not sure if there is a person in this world that I love and admire more than my Grandma Rose. I've always looked up to her and hope to be just like her someday. I think each of us have one of those people in our lives. You know....that one person who single handedly transmitted more love, and value, and fullness into your life than any other single person. Well, for me it was her.

 

As I sit here today in reflection of my memories with her, I wanted to capture in my journal, some of the reasons why she has been so important to me throughout my life. I want my children to know who I am modeling my life after. I want them to know who this wonderful woman is and why she meant so much to me.

 

My Grandma loved life to the fullest. She loved her childhood, her teenage years, her college years and she especially loved school. She always talks about how fun it was growing up in her time and she seemed to find the joy in everything she did. One of my all time favorite stories from her youth was when she would sneak out of her college dorm room late at night. Before leaving her room she would tie a string around her roommate's toe and then run the string out the window and down the side of the building to the ground. Once she exited her dormitory the building doors would lock behind her... but not to fear...she thought ahead. When she arrived back home from her evening of fun she just simply gave the string a few tugs to wake up her sleeping roommate who then ran down to open the door and let her in. (My grandma would probably kill me for sharing, but I just love it too much not to.) After college she became a school teacher and taught school in a one room school house. She is practically a genius in my book. She could write poetry on the spot and can give the spelling and definition to any word that ever existed in the English dictionary. My grandma met my grandpa while teaching school. I love the story she tells about walking home to her cottage after school each day and my grandpa, "the bus driver", driving the bus slowly right along side of her offering her a ride. At first she said no thank you, but he was persistent, and she eventually got on.  All of the stories she would tell from these early days of her life made me want to have been born in the 1920's so I could have been by her side (maybe as her best friend) and experience all of those fun times with her.

Along with loving life to the fullest my Grandma Rose has always had such a love for those around her; especially her family. She is a great example of what unconditional love looks likes. Grandma always had time for you. She always wanted to know about your life, how you were doing and what she could do for you. She made you feel like you were the most important person in her life. I love that about her.
More important than giving big gifts to her children and grandchildren was that she gave of herself and she gave of her time. As simple as it may sound one of our favorite things about grandma was that she remembered every single one of our birthdays and anniversaries with a hand written card telling us how much she loved us. This wasn't something she only did with the children and grand children, it continue on with all of their spouses and into the next generation of great grandchildren as well. My kids looked forward to, anticipated, and cherished each card she gave them. They loved how it made them feel to know that she had thought of them on their special day. 

Grandma lived a life full of service and was a great hostess. It seemed like she never sat down, always cooking and serving, making sure everyone had what they needed and that they were happy.

I loved staying the night at Grandma's and receiving her 5 star treatment. She always had fun things for us to do, lots of delicious food for every meal, a freezer full of popsicles, and we could always count on games around the kitchen table late into the night. After the fun was through she would tuck us into the coziest bed with the fluffiest feather pillows I can ever remember. It was only after we had had the time of our lives and were tucked in bed that she would focus on cleaning up after our mess, studying her scriptures, doing a crossword, or taking her own personal time to unwind for the day. Now looking back I'm sure this would have exhausted anyone but she never let us know it; She was a very selfless lady.
Watching Grandma Rose with her 9 children was inspiring, she made it look easy and fun. Her example is probably one of the biggest reasons I've always wanted to raise a large family myself.
I am grateful to have her 9 children, as my aunts and uncles, here to carry out her legacy. I always can feel a piece of her when I am with them.

 

My Grandma is a convert to the church. Her conversion story, testimony and church service have always been inspiring to me. She has held many callings in the church and I know she has touched many lives and brought many people closer to Christ because of her sweet spirit. She taught seminary and was a master of the scriptures. I witnessed her reading them often. My Grandma dedicated many of her years to family history work and was very dedicated to temple service. I remember all of the times when she and grandpa would come to stay with our family in Seattle to do temple work for days at a time; I always loved those visits.

When I was 20 I had the great blessing of being able to live with my grandma after my grandpa's passing. I loved living with my idol and being able to get to know her on a deeper level. I loved our late night chats. I learned things about my grandma that I never knew before that time. She shared with me a myriad of her own personal life's experiences.....a few regrets from past choices, challenging things in her life, and mistakes she had made and learned from, advise she wanted to pass on to this next generation and which she believed would help me in my life. Hearing all of her stories and experiences just made her even more relateable and real to me and I loved her that much more.

While living with her I was proposed to and was engaged to Dan. I loved sharing those exciting times in my life with her. Through the years I have loved sharing these special kinds of events with her... our wedding, and the births, blessings, and baptisms of our babies. I have loved being able to relate with my grandma on matters of motherhood. To have her share stories with me about labor and delivery, "being served iodine by her mother in law", "diapers freezing on the clothes line in the middle of winter" and bathing her babies by the open oven door. I have loved seeing her interact with my children as their great grandmother and wish my kids could have more time with her but I am grateful that she was able to meet and hold each one of my 7 babies, from my first baby Alaina all the way down to my youngest, Brinley. They all know her, love her and have felt her love for each one of them.

I know my grandma loved all of her 149 grand and great grandchildren but she seemed to have an extra special place in her heart for us grand daughters. Many years ago, she started a tradition each Christmas Eve of inviting all of us granddaughters over for some special time and special attention. We all loved the Grand daughter Christmas Eve brunch tradition. After our Swedish Pancake meal we would exchange gifts, play games, visit, play the piano and sing for her; which she loved.

 

 My grandma even wrote a poem for us girl's. (Remember how I said she could write poetry on the spot. I wasn't joking. She wrote poems for anything and everything and even upon request, she has a book full of them)

 

My "Girlie" times are a special delight,

When you granddaughters come to stay half the night!

Maybe many, or few, it doesn't matter

We eat and play games, tease and chatter.

The bond this creates will linger on

To bring fond memories long after I'm gone.

Loving granddaughters you've been from the start~

You'll always have a special place in my heart.

What she may or may not have known was that these traditions of bringing us granddaughters together at her house not only allowed us to bond with her but also allowed us cousins to create special bonds with one another that go deeper than the average friendship. I love my cousins and am grateful for my relationships with each one of them. A big thank you to Grandma for making all of this happen. I am grateful to be her granddaughter.

Over the last few years its been hard to watch the aging process chip away at grandma. She lost most of her sight, she needed blood transfusions on a regular basis, she needed oxygen to assist with her breathing and the list could go on. But, despite all of this she kept a positive attitude and a glowing smile and continued to cherish every minute she had with us.

 

 The thing I will definitely miss the most about my Grandma Rose is all of the FUN I had with her. She made me laugh. I loved her witty personality, her playful teasing, her helpful and sometimes funny advice and all of the other "naughty" fun we would have together. She was up for visitors and game night any night of the week. We would stay late into the night playing and having fun. It was guaranteed that at some point during a visit we would find something so funny we would laugh until we cried (or moisture from other parts of our body were released... if ya know what I mean.)

 
I LOVE you Grandma Rose!

Thank you for making me feel so special and loved these last 36 years of my life.