Losing Gram

My Grandma Beadle passed away peacefully on Monday morning. Gram was the best and we will all miss her alot. The following is what I wrote in my editorial this week for the paper:

It’s hard to lose someone you love and care about. This morning (Monday), I got a phone call from my mom that my grandma had passed away. She got sick a couple of weeks before Christmas, ended up having a massive stroke and we all can’t believe she made it as long as she did. I’ve written about my grandma before – she’s the one whose mashed potatoes I adored!

My grandma was one tough cookie. The hospital told us three times she wouldn’t make it through the night and she kept fighting. That’s the kind of person that she was, the kind that didn’t just roll over and give up and kept fighting. She was a tell-it-like-it is kind of person who was full of spunk and I always loved and admired her for that.

Isn’t it strange how when someone you love passes away you remember really random memories? I instantly thought about how she never ever forgot our birthdays or anniversaries. Ever! And, when she wrote your name on the card she always put quotation marks around it. Isn’t that a strange thing to remember?

My grandma, as I’ve said before, was a farm wife. The constant hostess no matter if it was family or a neighbor stopping by, there was always a pot of coffee ready to go and a cake, pan of bars or cookies that she just “whipped up.”I think I got my love of cooking from her. For my wedding shower, she got me a church cookbook and wrote my name on the inside cover and wrote from “Gram” (as we always referred to her). That is my favorite cookbook out of all of the ones I have (and I have quite a few), but now it means even more to me.

In her hostess mode, if I were coming for a visit, she would always ask what I wanted to eat. I would always respond, “mashed potatoes and homemade chicken and noodles.” You know the noodles I’m talking about – the egg noodles where you make them from scratch and roll them out and let them dry and they are just delicious.

I bring this up because sometimes in life there are things you can’t explain. I have never ever made, tried, or even attempted to make homemade chicken and noodles. This past week I decided to give it a try. So Sunday, for the first time in my life, I gave it my best shot and we had homemade chicken and noodles for supper. They turned out pretty good, but of course, not as good as Gram would have made. Monday morning I got the phone call. Isn’t it the strangest thing that the one meal I always requested that my grandma make I had made just hours before she passed? How do you explain it? Sometimes life just works in mysterious ways.

Our family won’t be the same without Grandma. You can never replace somebody you have lost because every person in your life brings something special and unique. The thought of the week seemed appropriate, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” And even though she’s not here with us anymore and I know she’s in a better place, she will still live on in my heart and through my memories, but that’s just the way I see it.