February 8

My grandma passed away this morning back in Maryland. She was --like her mother before her-- a ripe, sturdy 101 years old. And if you'd asked her any day of the week, she would've told you --without an iota of hesitation-- that she was 101 percent ready to meet Jesus.

Anyway, my mom called me before my alarm clock went off to share the news that grandma had passed peacefully at around 2:30 AM Eastern. It wasn't a surprise, since I knew that she'd gone into the hospital with double pneumonia on Sunday and centenarians who are more than ready to see Jesus don't typically survive bouts with pneumonia. I thanked mom and hung up and laid still for a few moments to take a tentative dip in the pool of remembrance and realization, but after deciding that the "pool" was really more of an ocean of indeterminate depth, I got up quickly so as to avoid falling in before I could really commit to feeling the feels.

I still haven't really let the waves wash over me, but there are so many reflections and memories and truths coming from so many years of love and life that they're starting to leak out, one by one by one. I have hundreds of stories of my grandma and who she was and how she impacted me and my family and other people in her immediate community and around the world. 

She was, to be succinct, one entirely unassuming woman who chose to live an incredibly faithful life. 

Just to sample... I stayed with her and my grandpa for a time when I was very young, and during that time I discovered I could "help" her mix her skim milk by "accidentally" dropping the spoon into the pitcher. (That became our schtick for a long time to come, and even decades later she still talked about how she'd hear my little feet come running when she opened the cupboard door to get the powdered milk.) After my parents separated and we moved in with them, she took us to appointments and was home when we left for school and when we got back. She listened to --and even encouraged-- the little stage shows my brother Charlie and I would put together and perform. She gave me saltines with jelly and cottage cheese with pineapple and let me watch "The Price is Right" and "I Love Lucy" on sick days. I walked with her around the circular driveway that fronted the house when the sun shone and in the large finished basement on rainy days. I was there and helped as she and my mom chaired the Clothing Department in the Home Arts Building at the County Fair each August. And I watched as she made hundreds --maybe even thousands-- of little stuffed animals for siblings of new babies born at Shady Grove Hospital to give to their families' new arrivals.

I always knew she was a woman of faith, but as I got older, I realized that she truly prayed incessantly and enjoyed a real, personal relationship with Jesus. After I became a mother, she consistently reminded me to tell the children that Great-Grandmother Connie loved them. And she did, just like she loved me. She gave love freely and well. And she was never stuffy or dull; she was funny and quirky. She had a wicked sense of humor that often caught me completely off guard, like the time she and Abby and I were watching TV in her family room and she suddenly turned to us, cackled, and exclaimed --as she shimmied her shoulders-- "Heeheehee, I'm not wearing a bra!" She enjoyed keeping up with "The Bachelor" franchise because she wanted to see what stunts those "nutty women" would pull each week. And those Hallmark movies, how she loved them, too. I sat and watched more than a few of them with her during the wonderful Christmases my family spent at her house.

There's so much more I could share; so many little details of what she did and who she was that I never want to forget. Although I will miss her, I know where she is. I know she's with my grandpa and my sweet Logan. I know that her body is no longer failing her and that there's no more pain and I'm thankful for that. And I'm thankful for all that she taught me, both via instruction and via example, because those lessons could fill volumes. 

Yes, she lived a beautiful life. And I am so grateful that I had her here as my grandma for 46 years.