These words had to get out while they were raw and fresh and emotional and unimaginably full. Today I fly to Kansas City for the passing of my grandmother.
Two days ago the world lost a saint and Heaven received an angel. You were beauty and delicate grace.
My growing years, you would wake before sunrise, singing Que Sa Ra Sa Ra Whatever Will Be Will Be as you prepped the coffee, juice, and toast with berry jam, before grandpa left for the wheat fields. There is something to be said of a woman who served OJ in long stemmed glasses and every meal on china and silver...pure elegance.
In the summers, when I was 6 or 7, you would gently lay me up on the counter top by the sink to shampoo my hair and massage and clean my tiny curls. Those 20 minutes were rich in love and the deepest affection. Thirty years later, the memories are warm and vivid of those hair washings. There were trips to the clothing store to buy me patent leather shoes and new underwear and something girly. Or take us grandkids in the afternoon to get a Coke at the soda fountain or lunch at the Dairy Queen or maybe a little toy. And baskets filled with fluffy bunnies and chocolate covered marshmallow yummies at Easter. It was never about what we got but how special and cared for you made everyone feel.
So much of what I wanted to become was because of you...the embodiment of all it meant to be a true lady. Your life was never drama (even when it might have been), and your presence brought richness to everyone around you. I never once heard you complain.
Your beautiful, wrinkled, sun spotted hands worked the spring flowers, growing hundreds of happy baby-pink peonies, arranged and gifted to the church for funeral dinners or weddings or whoever might need a dash of joy at their occasion. As well as countless meals for others in times of grief. Your life was given to others.
You were a china painting, housekeeping, oil painting, yodeling, guitar playing, sewing-your-own gorgeous fashion chic...style and class and beauty beyond measure. Grandma ,you gave to the world without expectation of what you would get back. Your selflessness is a legacy and a rarity.
Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa’s was that one childhood snapshot that brings a smile at any given moment even now the snow covered lights were shimmering Winter perfection...the presents under the tree, their own dazzling art show uploaded with glittery, frilly touches you had added to each package...everything always beautiful. From chopped salad to Christmas ham to ordering ice cream for us from the Schwan man, your life sparkled excellence.
I will spend a lifetime not forgetting you Grandma. Thank you for making me and the people you knew and the entire world around you better and richer and perfect. If every life were lived as you lived yours, the world would truly be as it should.
“We are a tiny pencil in the hands of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” ~Mother Teresa
Carolyn Mae Jamison thank you. The story you wrote was full of love and excellence and I pray at the end of it all I live exactly as you did...poured out, elegant, kind, artistic, lovely.
