Up in the Clouds

     I know heaven isn’t really up in the clouds, but I’d like to believe my grandmother’s soul is floating somewhere, interacting with other cool people and being happy. She passed away in her sleep last night, and was just barely 76. I’m so sad. My grandfather passed away almost four years ago, and after that my grandmother just degraded really fast. She had a kind of dementia and it was sort of like Alzheimer’s, only we don’t know if she didn’t know who we were or just couldn’t tell us because she stopped talking. I feel horrible for this but my grandmother’s birthday party was Tuesday and I didn’t go. I just forgot. My dad told me about it on Sunday at Brent’s graduation but I still didn’t remember. And now she’s dead and I can’t ever see her again. And that makes me more sad. But my mom made me feel a little better by telling me that if God really had wanted that to be my last memory of grandmother I would have remembered. So I was thinking of her all day and here are some cool things about her:

*This is me and my cousin Dustin at my grandparent’s Cali casa. Whenever we were down there grandmother always made sure there were lots of oranges so we could make fresh squeezed juice every morning.
*My grandmother had the same pink nail polish ever since I can remember. My girlfriend and I were down at the desert for spring break and went to paint our nails. We wanted to take it off and went into grandmother’s bathroom but all we saw were three bottles of pink polish and no remover. When I asked my grandmother for some she asked why she would need it. 🙂
*My grandmother and grandfather were quite the socialites. I love this article from our local paper:

*I was the first one to actually graduate from Oregon State, I’m sure that made my grandfather and grandmother proud. I know they were excited when I got in.
*I read my grandmother’s high school yearbook back when there was only one high school in Salem (now there are six). My grandfather signed a bunch but my favorite thing he said was, “I hope and I am sure you will be around to share my millions.”
*Grandmother took me and a girlfriend to Palm Springs to walk down El Paseo street at night and look at all the shops. Even though they were way too big she let us borrow fur coats to wear so we looked fancy.
*Grandmother made little hotcakes for breakfast that were quite famous in our family. I believe my cousin Ryan holds the record for the most eaten in one morning at 47 or something ridiculous. I always ate them with butter and sugar. {Note: Brent thinks this number is lower, who remembers?}
*Grandmother tried the Atkin’s diet before it was popular. My friend Brooke and I were visiting and she made an avocado salad that consisted of half an avocado, mayonnaise, and bacon. It was so gross.
*Grandmother though her gravy was the best at Thanksgiving because we all slathered it on our turkey and it almost always ran out. But the truth was every year she got up earlier and earlier to start the turkey and it was SO DRY!!
*My grandmother made each of her five grandchildren a scrapbook with really funny captions and I think it is one of the things that made me want to scrapbook!
*I don’t know why but you couldn’t call grandmother and grandfather grandma and grandpa, only my older cousin Dustin occasionally got away with calling her grams.
*Grandmother and grandfather loved stuff from Mexico and had tons of artwork from there in their living room. They did not “get” my abstract stuff, but appreciated me for being creative.

I’m so thankful for my grandparents and what time I did get to spend with them. I really miss our whole family getting together. After my grandfather’s death we never did another holiday together. And now all the grandchildren are out of school and all over. I am looking forwards to seeing my cousins at the funeral on Tuesday because I miss them a lot. My grandparents were really good to us grandchildren. Because of the trust fund they set up for me I was able to start the Ribbon Jar and I know they would be really proud of me because they were entrepreneurs and always getting into a new venture.

And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take.