My sweet grandma Diesen passed away on Monday June 18, 2007. She was born April 21, 1910 and lived to be 97 years old.
Up until the past few months she was VERY healthy. She only quit driving within the last year or two. Over the past few months my sweet grandmother endured a mild heart attack, a stroke and other health issues. We knew the end was near so last Monday, on June 11th, my mom, my sister and her girls, and I made a quick trip up to Minnesota to see her. We were able to tell her how much we loved and her and let her know we were there. Even though I think she still looked good for 97, I want to remember her how she was before - a very independent, spunky woman full of life. I wanted to share these cute pictures of how I will always remember her. 
Here is one of my all time favorite pictures. Here she is back in 1999 with Caleb. He was only 4 months old and my grandma was 89. I LOVE this picture so much!!! I will cherish it forever. Since my daddy died when I was 17, my kids obviously didn't get to know him, so it always brought so much joy to see my kids with their grandma.
The next picture was taken in the fall of 2004 with my Aunt Eileen (my daddy's sister) and Grandma. Caden was only 14 months in this picture. My grandma looks really good for 94 doesn't she. My dad's parents lived in Minnesota and we lived in Texas so we normally only got to see them once a year. They would come to our house for Thanksgiving and then stay about a week and then drive to Florida to stay the winter in their Florida home. When they came to visit my sister and I would have to share a room. The day my grandparents left we would sometimes find a note on our dresser with some money telling us thanks for the use of our room and for us having to share. She was always so sweet and generous. She always thought she had to make herself useful while she was visiting. She would make my sister and I silver dollar size pancakes for breakfast so we could go to school telling our friends we ate 50 pancakes. She also cooked a lot while she was there so we always had a ton of pies in our deep freezer to last us all year. My head and heart are filled with so many other memories of my wonderful grandmother. Thank you for taking the time to read about a few of them!
2 comments:
Great post DeeDee. There are so many little things I remember, like the sound and the smell from the kitchen when we stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's place. They were up in the morning with the sun, but of course we'd want to sleep in. I remember waking in the morning to the smell of coffee and breakfast cooking, and the sound of their hushed conversations.
Another simple little thing was a bit of origami she taught me...how to make a box out of a piece of paper. I still remember how to do it and make them from time to time. Just this last Saturday, with Grandma in our thoughts and prayers, we were driving with the kids when Caden (now 4-1/2) was napping and Ashton (now 2-1/2, can you believe it?) starting to get restless and noisy, so I made him one of those boxes. He was quiet and content playing with it for the rest of the drive. Just one of many, many little ways in which Grandma will always continue to touch our lives.
P.S. I enjoy your blog, it's a nice way to keep up with what you are doing. Thanks for writing it.
I also lost my granny in 2003 when she was 92. Like your grandmother, she was spunky and lively until almost the very end. What got me the most is we almost have the same memory about the pancakes!! I almost thought I was reading a post about myself. Small world!!- Leann
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