November 07, 2017

Goodbye Sweet Flo

Life has been...full...lately.

My sweet Grandma Flo passed away on October 24...it was bittersweet for sure. She has been suffering for awhile now, with her health and her memory. She was touch and go so many times, but continued to pull through each time. It was at a point where she didn't really remember why she was in the hospital -- which is kind of a blessing, too. She had a DNR set up, so it came to nature taking charge. I am so sad that I will no longer get to see her or hug her or hear her voice...but I feel like she is in a much better, happier place now.

Her memorial was on Friday, November 3rd -- which also happened to be her birthday. Chris and I traveled to St. Louis to be a part of it (more on that adventure later). There was a visitation first, and then a beautiful service at her long-time church, Calvary Church of Christ. The preacher did a great job capturing her essence, and her long-time neighbor also shared some beautiful words. We sang a few hymns and my uncle Kevin gave a beautiful eulogy.

The church was decorated with lots of great photo memories from the years...and the main table that held her ivory white urn was covered in a lace tablecloth with framed photos of my grandpa, my dad, my uncle Randy, her best friend Audrey...and also her famous ceramic candy jar.

There are so many memories swirling around in my head of her...I'm so grateful that my mom made sure I always had special weekends at their house. My grandparents were so special to me...here are a few favorite memories of my grandma:

:: I loved playing Rummy together...we could play for hours! The fun part is that she loved to win...even if that meant cheating when I went to the bathroom :)

:: She was an amazing cook -- tuna salad, chili, the best sweet iced tea. Such an odd thing for me to remember, but I always loved the way she would put mayonnaise on the bread -- she was so deliberate with her knife strokes, every single time. To me, it seemed like she was putting in all her love while she did it.

:: She loved to spend hours at the mall, meandering and shopping...it was always a long adventure!

:: She would buy gifts throughout the year, for birthdays and Christmas...except, when the holiday rolled around, she could never remember what she had bought or where she had it hidden! So she would always buy something different, only to come across the original gift months later...

:: She and my grandpa took me on a few very memorable vacations to Black River Lodge, and those will always be so special to me!

:: She eventually stopped most of her cooking and started using the oven as a cabinet...she would store her cookies and such in there!

:: She had beautiful glasses with tiny roses in the frames...I always loved those.

:: Over the years, she wrote me so many handwritten letters, and I adored her handwriting...it had a beautiful slant to it, and was so her.

I loved her so much...and will miss her dearly...I am so blessed that she was a part of my life all these years. I was definitely the lucky one. I never doubted her love for me. I hope she knew just how special she was to me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Such sweet memories of Grandma Flo. You were lucky! Hugs - PTS

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