Remembering Grandma

Today is my Grandma Marjie's birthday.

She would have been 83.

She died in August after a very short battle with pancreatic cancer.

Today, and many other days, I am remembering things about her.

* how much she loved God
* how much she loved Grandpa
* how much she loved babies
* that she served a meal in addition to dinner and supper, called "lunch", at about 3:30. Some people may refer to this as "coffee time" or "snack"
* the way she called noodles "macaroni" and how my kids always thought she meant macaroni and cheese.
* how she would say "oh, honestly" when she was disgusted about something.
* her gold-capped teeth, which I thought were fascinating, and which she hated. They are the reason she didn't smile with her teeth showing for a picture.
* when she had open-heart surgery, she had a huge scar on her chest. She never tried to hide it, which I think was really neat.
* how her wedding ring would spin around on her finger. It had to be big enough to go over her arthritic knuckles, which made it too big for the base of her finger. I remember exactly what it looked like.
* the squeak of her rocking chair.
* how she would hum, but didn't sing particularly well. She left that to Grandpa.
* she LOVED to entertain. So many people ate many many meals around her huge dining room table. She was always the hostess.
* her Mystery Suppers. Have you ever done one of those? Where the menu is all in code, and the attendees pick what to have for their meal with no real idea of what they are getting. Very fun. In later years, she would enlist my help for these. They were times of a lot of laughter. I remember once she had our Pastor and his family over along with our household. Our pastor had 7 kids at the time and so did we. How many people, much less an 80-something widow, would have 18 people over for supper? Especially when 14 of those 18 were under the age of 14? That was my Grandma...
* I remember going over to her house as a child before Christmas and helping her to wrap all the gifts. She would have a post it on the box, telling who the gift was for and my sister and I would wrap it up and put on the tags.
* she always called canned peaches or pears "sauce". "Would you like any sauce?" she'd say. My kids knew what she meant. And even began to call them that themselves.
* how bravely she faced death.
* how freely she told her family that she loved them.
* how on the day of her death, when I read her her devotions, the passage was "⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." She died that afternoon.
* I am remembering how she could drive me really crazy, because she could be so pointed in her questions or comments.
* But mostly, I am remembering how much I miss my Grandma...