Sept 8, 1936- May 18, 2020
If you follow my blog you know that while my daughter was in the hospital, my grandma passed away. There have been so many emotions that I really wasn’t even going to post about it. But this is a sort of diary for me, and a lot of what I post is so that I have these memories to look back on.
My grandma was an amazing, strong woman who lived her life for her family. My cousins and I are so tight that we’ve never spent more than a month without a gathering. We all talk to each other all the time and make sure that we let each other know that we are always here for one another. That’s the family that she raised. Family first… period!
She left a really big family behind. In her life she was able to be a part of the lives for her 5 of her children, 13 grand children, 21 great grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren. Interestingly I am the oldest of the grands, my son is the oldest of the greats and my granddaughter is the oldest of the great-greats.
Front: my oldest daughter tea, Tatum ( granddaughter), Kayla (my DIL), Me, Aria (my youngest in front of me)
My grandma lost her oldest son around 25 years ago and her husband (my grandfather) a little over 12 years ago. She lived a long life full of experiences and able to watch her family grow. But, the first thing that came to mind after the shock that she was gone was, now she’s with my uncle and papa… and it warms my heart to think that.
We were so blessed to be able to celebrate her life as a family with a full service during this pandemic. There are some who I’ve heard were not able to give their loved ones a proper service a month or so ago. The family on the mainland were able to fly in to Hawaii and do their 14 day mandatory quarantine in able to join the service. There still was social distancing, which we weren’t too worried about because everyone was really careful and followed the rules during quarantine.
The turn out was actually more than I thought it would be. This is how my family is… even our second, third and fourth cousins are all close and showed up. It was truly a day full of blessings. The weather was beautiful, the flower arrangements were beautiful, just the overall mood was bittersweet and BEAUTIFUL. The love that surrounded my family that day was present and we all knew it was grams and papa showering the love onto us.
After the burial we all headed to her home, a place where she’s lived all my life and where my family has built a lifetime of memories. We drank, shared stories, drank, laughed, cried, drank, sang and just had the best time together. Yesterday was another story… woke up with a headache, slept, ate, slept… I really paid for that good time I had!
I’m going to link her favorite song here. It’s such a perfect song for her and her life so we played it during the service. Enjoy!
I mean how cool is this place! It’s like walking into a time machine and heading right back to mid-century. All of the Elvis, Audrey, Marilyn, I love Lucy… amazing! And they played the Grease soundtrack while we ate. Now I think that all my meals should be eaten with the Grease soundtrack playing in the background 😉
