Saying Goodbye to Grandma

Thank you for all of the prayers and sweet words you have sent our way. This weekend was a wonderful celebration of Grandma's life! She was one of the most spirited, funniest, wittiest, fun-loving people I have ever known. She was certainly not your "typical" grandmother. Our bond exceeded that beyond grandmother and granddaughter. As my dad put it, she was the Matriarch of our family, and boy did that mean we had some good times with Grandma around!

My dad and brother both spoke at her memorial. They both did an amazing job. Grandma would have been so, so proud! While we miss Grandma so very much, we know she is in a much better place. Heaven is a much happier place with Grandma there now. :)


Chris's memorium:
For those of you that knew Dorothy, you know that she wouldn’t want today to be a sad occasion. Dorothy was always Grandma to myself and my sister, Cathy, and she always will be.

She was truly a person that always made the best of every situation--typically with laughter. She could make people laugh…sometimes even when she wasn’t trying to be funny.

Those who met her have described her as: contagiously funny, full of spirit, a positive person and a real hoot to be around. That’s how me and my family will always remember her. But I’d say she loved three things most: God, her family and making people laugh.

GROWING UP
Growing up, my sister and I always looked forward to the weekends when we could to to Grandma‘s and Grandan‘s house, and even spend the night on numerous occasions.. They were special occasions--filled with lots of opportunities to get away with things that we couldn’t always get away with at home.

Grandma would always feed us good food. And when I say good food, I don’t mean good-for-you food. At Grandma’s, we’d eat our weight in popsicles, ice cream, shoestring potatoes and Frito Pies. I can’t even remember how many HyTop Pizzas she cooked for us, but it was a ridiculous amount. But she was happy when she knew we were happy.

That’s just the type of person she was. She wasn’t happy until she could make other people happy.

She brought happiness to others through laughter. I really think it was her best quality.

She would always introduce myself and my sister as, “this is my favorite granddaughter” or “this is my favorite grandson.”

Our response would always be, “Grandma, I’m your only granddaughter,” or “Grandma, I’m your only grandson.” She’d always reply, “That’s why you’re my favorite.”

After Cathy married Matt, she always loved to pick on Matt, who was the new guy in the family. Every time Matt would get a phone call while he was over, she would always say to my sister, “Yep, there’s that little blonde calling again that he’s seeing.”

You just couldn’t help but laugh.

STUBBORN
For those of you who knew her well, you probably knew that she was stubborn. No, she wasn’t stubborn in a mean way--she just had her own idea about things.

She loved game shows. Especially Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud. One day, while watching Family Feud, she insisted that it wasn’t fair that the person on the right had an advantage because his buzzer was closer than the one on the left. We tried to convince her that they were equal distance, but with no accord.

When you tried to argue with her about “her opinion” about something, and she still didn’t agree, she would always say, “Well, I guess…” We would drive ourselves crazy trying to explain some things to her, but once she had her mind set about something, there was just no changing.

She also had her own opinions about the local and national news. Grandma was so intrigued by breaking news and she loved to discuss it.

I’ll never forget a phone call I got in 1994. I answered, and Grandma said, “Are you watching this?” I said, “Watching what, Grandma?”

She said, “O.J. Simpson’s on the run and it’s on TV. Hurry, turn your TV on!” I turned the TV on and we stayed on the phone with each other for about an hour commenting on every turn the infamous white Bronco made. I think she stayed up later that night than I ever remember her staying up…which was probably about 10:30.

Also, if you ever rode in the car with her driving, it was well advised to buckle your seat belt tight. You see, she drove with two feet--one on the gas and one on the pedal. At red lights, you could hear the engine roaring, and you had better be holding on to something when the light turned green. I would ask her why her engine was making such a weird noise, and she’d just say, “What noise?”

That brings us to the other characteristic about Grandma. She was hard of hearing, but I think she made her mind up in 1980 that she would never get a hearing aide, and she never did.

In recent years, it had gotten much worse. When we’d mention a hearing aid, she’d always say, “Oh, it’s just people’s tone.” They can’t fix that. Or, “Oh, they’re just mumbling. They need to speak clearly.”

On a trip to the doctor in the last few years that Mom took Grandma to, the doctor told Grandma that she was a hoot.

Grandma’s response was, “I need to eat more fruit?”

SHE LOVED TIGER
Grandma also had another love. Tiger the Chihuahua. My sister and I were dying for a dog when we were little. Our parents surprised us with a little three-pound spotted Chihuahua we named Tiger.

Grandma loved this dog so much, and Tiger felt the same. We’d always take Tiger over to Grandma’s. As soon as we got two-to-three blocks away, Tiger would start panting and barking with excitement. He knew he was headed to Grandma’s and couldn’t wait to get there.

Arriving at the house, Tiger would jump out of the car, rush to the screen door and begin scratching to alarm Grandma that he was there. She usually couldn’t hear him scratching since the TV was turned up so loud, so we’d poke our heads in and say, “Grandma, we’re here!”

Tiger would immediately rush to Grandma, who would pick him up. They were both content.

If Tiger spent the night with Grandma while we were on a trip, she would always insist that Tiger said “Goodnight” before they went to sleep. Grandma said she would say, “Goodnight Tiger,” and his response was a “chirp, chirp” signifying “goodnight.”

We had a hard time believing this, but it was too funny to picture.

Grandma always said, “If everybody loved me as much as Tiger, I’d have it made.”

LUCKY
Truth is, we were all lucky to have known Dorothy, or Grandma as I know her. She was one special person. As she got older, and couldn’t take care of herself as well, she moved in with my parents. She wasn’t able to get out as much as she wanted to.

On Sundays, when we’d get home from church, she’d be watching TV, and I’d ask her what she was watching. She’d say, “Oh, I was Baptist today” or “Oh I was Methodist today” referring to the church service she saw on TV that morning.

She always had such a wonderful peace about her and trusted in God through all of what she loved to call “life’s little trivials.”

I probably heard her say that a million times.

When trouble would arise in her life, she’d always say, “You know…I’m an old Presbyterian… what’s meant to be, will be.”

That’s pretty much how she lived life. She rolled through the tough times with laughter and the good times with pure joy.

The first time I remember seeing Grandma sad was when my grandfather, that we called Grandan, passed away in 1988. I was 12 years old. In typical Grandma fashion, though, she wiped away her tears, hugged us and assured us that everything would be OK.

She loved Grandan, my mom and dad, and me and my sister and her husband, and especially her great grandchild, Abby, who affectionately called her MoMo with all of her heart. Her love for family was evident every time we were around her.

Even when she couldn’t walk anymore and was bedridden, she was still positive for the most part, accepting what God had planned for her life.

On the last day she ever spoke, she told me in a broken, weak voice, “When something happens to me, y’all don’t fall apart. We had some great times. I love you.”

We did have some great times, Grandma, but I know that now your great times are greatness that we can‘t even imagine on earth…

…you know a peace that we humans cannot comprehend… and I also know that the other angels are laughing in Heaven like they never knew they could.