Family Memories: My grandma

At the end of June, the day before my dad's birthday, his mom, my grandma, Grace Marie Hales, passed away with my parents and grandfather by her side. She was 95 and was just a couple months shy of being married to my 98 year old grandpa for 76 years! I was blessed to share her middle name which I passed on for Amelia's middle name (which is also after Chris's mom's name.) Claire is named after both of my grandmothers with her middle name as Grace.

My grandma had a stroke a number of years back and had to live in a nursing home. She couldn't do anything she used to love doing and was ready to end the fight. While I was sad to hear of her passing, especially for how my grandpa was feeling, I was happy for her and thought of all the loved ones she was reunited with - parents, siblings, three grandchildren, and friends. Still, after hearing the news, I had mixed emotions thinking back on all the happy memories I had in my lifetime with my grandma. I felt like I needed to get them all out and would like to share some of the memories that were flooding my mind at the time.

Yummy Sunday dinners at her house – hot dog potato stuff. Pie. Popcorn and orange juice in the evening.
Swimming in the pool and being bribed with Klondike bars to get out after hours of swimming.
Picking berries in your garden and admiring your beautiful, plentiful variety of flowers
Her service in the community working as a swim instructor and working at blood drives for the Red Cross
Her love for travel I inherited.
Looking at slides of their travels and the exotic, remote places they visited. Sometimes we'd see family slides too. She was quite the looker and had some beautiful dresses!
Eskimo and butterfly kisses – our special thing.
She unsuccessfully tried teaching me how to tat (I'm not a good student) but did successfully taught me to cross stitch.
Christmas day at their house – the pain of the kids having to finish washing the dishes before we could open presents. I always LOVED the presents they gave and I remember walking around the house Christmas night lovingly carrying around my newest pound puppy or cabbage patch doll.
Enjoying the bounty of their garden. I didn't know until I was an adult how spoiled I was with the plentiful strawberries, raspberries, and a ton of other garden goodies we enjoyed in the summer and throughout the year.
I loved the special interview I did with grandma and grandpa. I transcribed their life story and the adventures they had. I'm so glad I got to know even more about them.
Her undying love and devotion to grandpa. He wasn't always the easiest man to live with, but she loved him and was loyal to him no matter what. Their almost 76 years of marriage which was spent entirely together working on the farm, traveling, and retired, is such an inspiration to me.
Grandma was a great cook! Whether it was the rolls, scalloped potatoes, and especially the PIE, it was delicious! (Except for the one time you forgot to add sugar to the rhubarb. Haha. We had a good laugh about that one.:)) And I'm finally figuring out how to make her pie crust closer to how she did. It is seriously the best pie crust recipe out there!