Goodbye Grandma.

My Grandma Reding had a stroke this past February and then passed away a few days later. I was in BC for her funeral on Valentines Day. It was the longest I've ever been away from my kids, and I ended up with a lot of alone time just thinking. Thinking about how much I miss my Grandma, and what she meant to me. We lived a stone's throw away from my grandparents when I was little and the closeness we enjoyed was so precious. I always felt bad the past few years that I couldn't get back to BC to see them more, but the visits we did have were lovely. Grandma was also a very faithful correspondent, so I love that I can look back at all the homemade cards she has sent me through the years and see her handwriting. These are some of my memories of her:

-Her favorite color was purple

-She was always quick to laugh and to love

-She made the best vegetarian patties

-She gave the best foot massages

-She made so many beautiful things; blankets, p.j.'s...Acadia and Blaise's blankets on their beds that they sleep with every night. I still have a small blue and red afghan she made for me when I was little.

-She was an amazing story-teller.

-She was a faithful letter writer, sending me her hand made cards even when we were in Guatemala.

-When we were kids we'd come into her house after playing in the snow and she'd make us sweet mint tea.

-Playing with the big tin of mismatched buttons at her house.

-Picking raspberries and the huge vegetable garden we'd help with every summer.

-Calling Blaise "their little Robbie"

-Escaping the CUC cafeteria for a good home cooked meal.

-Spending every Christmas Eve at her house with all my raucous cousins.