I had the opportunity to speak at my Grandma's graveside service, some family asked me to post what I'd said, here it is:
(please excuse all typo's and grammatical errors)
Dear
Grandma,
For
the last 2 weeks I have been trying to figure out just how to tell our family
and friends how much I love you and how truly grateful I am to be your
granddaughter. Finally I realized the
one person I wanted to know exactly how I felt about you, was you and I decided
to write this letter.
Since
your passing we all have received sweet messages, cards and phone calls,
and there has been one constant theme, the
words used to define you are; love, loved, loving and lovely. And I truly can think of no better way to
describe you.
In
the Bible we are taught that true Christlike like love is defined as
charity. And we read in 1st Corinthians
13 4-8
4 aCharity bsuffereth long, and
is ckind; charity denvieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not
puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself aunseemly, seeketh not her bown, is not easily cprovoked, thinketh no evil;
This
is the exact love you have shown to all of us during your 87 years of
life. You never failed us. You taught us to endure all things, to be
kind, to love what you have, to not be selfish, to be happy, to be honest and
good and above all have faith.
Grandma,
thank you for always being there. I
cannot think of one major event or minor that you did not attend as I was
growing up. You supported my mom as she
finished her education so that she could take care of her family. You made our dinners, helped us with our
homework and did our laundry. I always
loved it when you cooked because you always made dessert. And the one project I remember the most was
in the 6th grade when you let me interview you for a project about
the great depression. I loved that your
family did not struggle like most. You
lived on a farm and grew your own food and being the 11th of 12 children
you were used to hand-me downs and homemade clothes.
Your
battle with our laundry still makes me laugh.
You have so many friends and are so loved… but you do have one
enemy. Bleach. We would always find random bleach marks. I called you Houdini because they would
magically appear. You even bleached that
beautiful smoky topaz ring and turned it back into a yellow topaz.
You
taught me that even though Grandma’s love their grandchildren so very much,
they love their own children even more.
I learned that when I was being an awful teenager and was telling you
how mad I was at my mom because she wouldn’t buy me a shirt I REALLY wanted, you pointed your
finger at me and in a stern voice said “That is my daughter and you will not
talk about her that way.” And I never
said anything like that to you ever again.
Ever.
As
kids we all loved visiting you. Your
family dinners that were full of laughs, good food, games, hot tea in what I
thought were the most beautiful tea cups
and ended with the grandkids doing the dishes were the best. We loved
playing table tennis in the backyard, you trying to teach us how to
golf, hanging laundry in the far back, picking lemons from your trees and then
juicing them to make lemonade, getting to spend the night and playing hotel and
you catering to each one of us. Erin and
I loved getting dressed up in your dresses and eating soft boiled eggs, apricot
tarts and lemon meringue pies.
You
have taken care of all of us here today in one way or another. In a family with many different personalities
and opinions, there is one thing that we could all agree on, and that was
you. Your happiness was what mattered to
us, because we all knew that our happiness mattered to you.
When
I got the message that you had passed, my heart became instantly full.
Memories like the ones like I’ve shared have been flooding my mind. I hate that you had to endure such an awful
disease. It started taking you from us
over the past few years and I wish there was something that I could have done
to make it stop. It broke my heart that
you were getting hurt so often.
I
am glad that you are with Grandpa, and your other loved ones who have passed
before. I know that it is where you want
to be. When I finally got the courage to
tell Lia that you had passed, through her
tears she said “I’m glad Heavenly Father will have someone to snuggle
with now.”
Today
I will make you a promise and ask everyone else here to do the same:
I
promise to be kinder, more loving, proud of who I am, a better spouse and
parent and I will always, always have more dessert.
God
be with you till we meet again grandma, you will be in my heart forever.
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