Friday, September 19, 2014

Grandma Florence

On August 15, 2014 I lost my grandma.  After a very long and difficult last month of her life, my grandma was finally with Jesus and pain free!  After I lost my grandma on my mom’s side without saying “goodbye,” I knew I would drop anything I was doing to say goodbye to this grandma!
I had the incredible opportunity to see her twice while she was in the ICU after they were going to make her comfortable in her last few hours or days.  Her last two weeks of life were such a rollercoaster.  She would be doing terrible one day and incredible the next day and then terrible the next day.
The first day I went to see her in the hospital, she was talking to me and telling me stories about life.  She would actually fall asleep and then wake up and tell me about just seeing her dad and then go back to sleep.  When she woke up the next time she talked about seeing her dad again.  That evening, she was very agitated and thought that the nursing staff was trying to hurt her.  It was so very painful to see her like that.  I wanted so much to stay with her and comfort her. 
The second day I went to see her in the hospital was amazing.  It could not have been a better goodbye.  Jeff, Alex, Andrew, and I were all there in the room with her for about and hour and a half.  She made us laugh so much that night.  She was so alert and so funny.  We kept asking her if she wanted us to leave so she could get some rest, but every time we asked, she said no, I love having you here!
She was the sweetest woman ever.  She loved her husband, children, and grandchildren so well. I always felt welcome and loved by her.  When we would visit her and my grandpa, she would constantly ask us if we wanted something to eat or drink.  When Jeff and I were younger, we would always ask our parents to go to our grandparents’ house for lunch because they had better lunch! And my absolute favorite food that I had over there was a hot fudge sundae in their special tall sundae cups.  Grandma would always remind Grandpa to get the special sundae cups for us.  It was so special.  She was such a giving person and she just lit up our world. 
It is so hard to not have her in our life anymore because she was so amazing, but she is finally pain free and we cannot be happier that she is celebrating with Jesus.  I am so blessed to have had her in my life and that she lived so close to us my whole life. Thank you for being such an incredible role model to us! I have learned so much from you and you have always taught me the ways to live my life! You are ABSOLUTELY incredible and I am so glad God chose you to be my grandma! We love you so much Grandma! We are taking care of Grandpa for you! Say hi to my other grandma for me!

Please pray for my grandpa right now as he is in a nursing home and is really sad about losing his wife!