At the end of July, my Green grandma passed away, a couple days before her 94th Birthday. She lived a good long life and was always expressing her gratitude for her family. She would tell us about a young woman she would see at the bank who told her she had chosen not to have children. My Grandma responded to her. "My parents, have died, my husband has died, all of my siblings and friends have died, my children and grandchildren are all I have and they are everything to me"
I have had the amazing privilege of living near both sets of grandparents my whole life with the exception of my college and mission days. This has given wonderful opportunities for my boys' to form their own relationship with their great grandmas. (Sadly both of my Grandpas passed away when I was a kid.)We would see my green grandma every Christmas eve with the only exception being the year I was in Armenia. the last year that Christmas Eve was held in my grandma's house, it was our very first white Christmas, causing many family members to not make it to her house. We debated with not going but decided to chain up the car and make a nice and slow drive to her house. We enjoyed a nice intimate Christmas celebration with grandma and we are so glad we made it because we had no idea it would be our last one in her home. The following year she was in a nursing home for Christmas but we are able to visit her and sing Christmas carols.
Green grandma and Miles
Some of you may be wondering why we call her green grandma. When we were little (my older brother and I) our Grandmas lived back to back to one another. (Basically my parents grew up as neighbors) We would visit both grandmas frequently. One of our grandmas had Red carpet and the other had Green carpet and a green house. This must have been the way our parents differentiated them (Or maybe James came up with it?) for us so we knew which grandma we were visiting. I never thought it was weird and just assumed all Grandmas had a color. Red grandma changed her carpet and has since moved (not too far though) and Green Grandma replaced her green carpet years ago but always kept her house green. She felt honored that she was Green Grandma.
Edwin with Green Grandma and a photo of her father Ralph Edwin Lovett and mother Marion Henrietta Davies.
She stayed sharp into her 90s and then her memory started to fade. When we visited she would repeatedly ask who was who. When we told her who Charlie was, she would smile and say, that's my brother's name and tell us about him. When we told her Edwin's name she would smile and share stories about her father. Who she said was oh-so-handsome with a head full of white hair. It got to the point where we needed to tell her who we were except Max, she remembered Max the longest. From the moment she met him one Thanksgiving when we were in high school, she just loved Max. That always meant a lot to me!
Her funeral was a simple graveside service on a Friday morning. It was the first day in weeks that we had a warm summer drizzle.
The only people in attendance were Green Grandma's 4 sons and many of their children. All family! And we were only missing a couple cousins. One of which has been very ill with colon cancer.
We heard stories of my grandma in her early years, how she and my grandpa had met, how she was always in the work field, how she was incredibly outgoing and my grandpa was extremely shy.
She was a college graduate and worked for the school district for many years.
We sang songs
Uncle Gary gave the boys his famous ninja hugs.
After the graveside service we made our way for a family brunch at Biscuits Cafe. It was so fun to visit with my cousins that I generally don't see that often.
Once we cleaned up Miles hands, he took a few photos.
We actually had to leave as soon as the food was brought out so we could get Max back to work.
Anyway, It was a beautiful tribute to my grandmother who lived a good long life.
