Friday, October 21, 2011

The Circle of Life, Part 1

It's been a blogless few days. My Grandma Pat passed away on Monday afternoon. It was very Fast, and pretty unexpected, even though she was 85. She was a big hearted woman, the Strongest of heart I had met until my son.



This relationship with my Grandma wasn't your traditional one. She's my stepmom's mom. Now I'm Blessed more than many people I know, by my father marrying my Stepmom, because not only was she wonderful and kind, and cooler than my father, but her family was even moreso. I was 13 when they met and dated, and the first time I met MB's mom was when we all road tripped out to North Tonawanda for MBs bridal shower. It was held a few days before my sister and I's 11th and 14th birthdays which are 2 days apart, and they held a birthday party for us. I thought it was the strangest thing: Cake, candles, presents, and we had just met these people. We were welcomed into the fold of this family with hugs, and kisses, and we instantly inherited a half a dozen cousins to play with. It was great. But after meeting her once, we were instantly introduced as 'the grandkids'. I never felt any other way from Grandma Pat.
She didn't ever swear, and didn't say a mean thing about anyone. Every year on my birthday I would get a flowerly froofy birthday card, and now there won't be any more. Grandma was a Faithfull Catholic. She and God were tight. She went to Mass every day. She had lost 3 of her 5 children and a husband to cancer, and her Faith never wavered. She amazed me. But she wasn't a stiff stifling kind of grandma, not the kind you couldn't hug, or just sit with. Joy was sitting around a table full of family playing cards or having a glass of wine, or maybe Both. She had nostrils that went on into next Tuesday, and the family would chase her around with a ruler threatening to measure them. We got to visit her for a few days, just the 4 of us, last summer. I'm just so glad we did. We got to hang out, she welcomed my boys into her family, just like she welcomed us. We dined at all the 'must do' places around town for good eats. Now the funeral is over. We have said our goodbyes. And we're about to head over to her house, and she's not going to be there to wave goodbye. She always stood at the doorway to wave Goodbye. And the hardest was pulling into the family's car line away from her place this morning to go to the church, I blubbered she wasn't there to wave goodbye. Then it occurred to me, she'll always be Waving Goodbye. From heaven.



All she did was Love. And she was really good at it.

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