Remembering a loved one...

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my grandparents (who are all deceased)... The memories we shared and the memories we missed out on making... And thus I was inspired to blog about it...

Remembering a loved one... Grandma Bessie

• Grandma Bessie was my paternal grandmother. She passed away in 2001; I was thirteen years old.
  
• Grandma Bessie was my dad's mother. Whenever we would visit he would always tell me "children are to be seen and not heard" but Grandma didn't think that way! She would offer me cookies and let me play with the old toys she had from when my cousins were younger. Sometimes Grandma and I would look through old photographs together and sometimes she would have me gather the fallen apples from the backyard so she wouldn't slip and fall on them.
  
• My first "concrete" memory of my Grandma is staying at her house when my sister graduated from high school, I would have been about eight years old at the time. I remember Grandma giving me a Barbie doll and then crocheting me a dress for it.
  
• My best memory of Grandma is the time she let me look through her jewelry boxes with her. She told me I should pick something to keep to remember her...but I didn't because I was worried Dad would be mad at me. Now that she's gone that is one of my biggest regrets.
  
• My most vivid memory of Grandma is the time we spent together after Grandpa died (December 1997). I would come to Grandma's after school and just sit with her. We'd watch Bandwagon or PBS, work on puzzles or just sit together.
  
• Grandma Bessie meant warmth and caring to me. Visiting Grandma was a treat. She always made me feel special and loved.
  
• Grandma Bessie died July 25th 2001 of a heart attack. She was in her early 80's.
  
• The hardest thing about losing Grandma was that is was so unexpected. She had been in great health for her age and no one expected her to be taken from us so soon.
  
• If Grandma Bessie were here today I would ask her what she thought of me and what I've accomplished thus far in my life.
  
• What I miss most about Grandma Bessie isn't really something tangible... I miss the memories that we are not able to make because she is no longer with us on earth.
  
• Thinking about Grandma telling me when I got my driver's license we would "cruise around and pick up boys" still makes me smile.
  
• My relationship with Grandma Bessie was a happy one. I didn't get to see her everyday so when I did it was a special treat!
  
• Grandma Bessie had short, light brown hair, blue-gray eyes and was quite petite. She smelled like lilacs and her Coty face powder. When I think of her, I think of, lilacs, Coty powder, crochet needles, cameo jewelry and making lefse.