Thursday, May 29, 2008

My Great Grandmother Great

My Grandmother Great passed away today. She lived a long, fully, happy life. I want to list some of my favorite memories of her.
One of my earliest memories of her is when I was very little I would get so excited when we went to see Grandmother Great and swim in her pool. She always made us saftey pin a key to our swim suit (I don't remeber what is was for, identifying us as belonging to her or something) but she loved to take us young great grandkids out to the pool.
When I was in my early teens she taught me piano lessons. She even gave me a nice brown bag to carry my books in. She always told me how wonderful I was doing but always let me know when I needed to work harder. She loved it most when I played Hymns. Sometimes I would stay after, and she would make cookies with me.
Whenever I would go over for a visit she would get so excited, telling everyone there how wonderful we were to come visit her. Then she would start pulling out geneology. She loved telling everyone about our ancestors and the interesting things they did. When she coudln't see very well she would ask us to read things to her. She has endless books and articles on all the incredible people in our family. She was always very proud of what those before her had done and always encouraged us to become something.
She was always very passionate about education and learning. She used to tell me about teaching children to read. I'm sure there are a lot of people today who have her to thank for their literacy.
About a year before I got married I was visiting her and she crossed her fingers and her arms and said very dramatically "please please please promise me you'll finish college before you get married". I told her "Grandmother, I can't promise something like that, I wouldn't want to break a promise to you". She kept insisting, but I knew Ryan was comming home soon and just couldn't promise her. Grandmother, I'm going to finish college in 2 months, I hope that works for you.
I love you Grandmother! Thank you for the wonderful example you have been!

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