A Sad Few Days

Sorry for the lack of posts these last few days. My grandma passed away on Saturday morning, and I was pretty busy with my family. It was dad's mom, and that side of my family is HUGE. My dad has 6 brothers and 1 sister. My grandma had 24 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren! She was 79, and she's been sick for a long time. It wasn't a big surprise at all, but still very sad.

My grandma always had this big vegetable garden, and I remember spending a lot of time sitting on her front porch "stringing beans" with her. I also remember that my grandma was the only one who I let french braid my hair (she was the only one that did it "right"). I remember that they were one of the first people I knew that got cable TV, and I spent a lot of time watching HBO and MTV there.

These last few years I really didn't spend too much time with her. She was really sick and in and out of nursing homes and the hospital. It was hard to see her like that, and I really stayed away. I really regret that she only ever held Maddy one time - on Mother's Day.

Yesterday, at the funeral, it was so weird because initially I wasn't really that sad about it, because she wasn't suffering anymore. She looked really peaceful. But, the part that hit me the hardest was seeing my dad and his siblings, and my grandpa, really break down. It then really hit home at how hard it would be to lose my mom or Jerry. My dad cried hard, and that was hard for me to see.

It was really sweet to watch my grandpa. When they told him that she had passed away, his only words were "At least she's not suffering anymore." And to watch him over the course of the last few days, you could just see how lost he was without her. He waited until everybody left the funeral home on Monday night, and then spent a lot of time saying his goodbyes. Yesterday, he was the last one to put a flower on her casket, and then to see him with his frail hand just pat it so gently was so sad.

We had a lunch afterwards, and just our family alone was 125 people. That's amazing to me. All of these people exist because of them. All because she married my grandpa when she was 16 years old. They were married for 63 years. That's incredible to me.

I told you she had 29 great-grandchildren. 5 of them were born in 2005. There were a lot of little kids and babies around the last few days. It was awesome to see her legacy. To know that her family will continue on and on, even though she's gone.