CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Thursday, March 26, 2009

We love you grandma!

Can I be done with funerals for awhile? I have been to 3 funerals within the last year all for dear family members and I'm ready for a break. My sweet Grandma Gilbert (mom's mom) passed away Sunday, March 15. We knew it was coming, she hadn't been doing very well, in fact, we held a family fast the first Sunday in March for this very purpose. As always, it is sad to say goodbye, but it is also such a blessing to know she is in a much better place and state of mind now. She leaves quite a legacy behind, 10 children, 46 grandchildren, 83 great-grandchildren, and 1 great- great- grandchild, and they just keep coming!
The oldest grandson from each family were the pall bearers.

Here is my family!

I think my sisters and I inherited our love of dance from grandma. She loved to talk about how every Friday night she would go dancing at the open air dances when she was growing up in the Uintah Basin. She would tell us about all her boyfriends, and how she used to date grandpa's cousin, however I just learned at her funeral that she was dating them at the SAME time! Luckily grandpa won out. It was always fun going to grandma's house cause that usually meant there would be cousins there to play with. Right outside their backyard was a huge park where we spent hours playing, I loved the family softball or kickball games. Grandma loved to play softball, she played in tournaments until she was 52! I only heard about her playing days, by the time I was old enough to join grandma was getting up there in years seeing as my mom is number 8 of the 10.
Toward the end as her alzheimers got worse every time she saw me she would comment on my red hair. She would say, "My mother had red hair, but it was a little darker than yours." Then she would see Rachel and say, "It was exactly like yours!" Out of all her very large posterity Rachel and I were the only lucky ones to inherit the red hair.
Thank you! Love you grandma!

3 comments:

Sarah Ruth Ritchie said...

Awwww.. That is so sweet. And boy Jamie's kids are getting so very big! That is great that all of you were able to come up to Washington for the funeral.

Cameron said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kelli said...

I'm sorry to hear about your Grandma. She sounds like an amazing woman! I have a grandma suffering with Alzheimers right now. It is tough to watch a family member go through that.