On December 27, my Grandma passed away in London, Ontario. Today a memorial service is being held, but alas, I am in the US -- so here are a few of my own memories of Grandma on the web.
As the oldest child of the oldest child, my memories of Grandma start when she was only about twelve years older than I am today. She still had a couple of members of her children living at home, including a pre-teen/young teenager.
Some of my fondest memories of Grandma include -- in no particular order:
- The Christmas stockings she made and hung from the railing-posts going up the stairway in her house. Each person's stocking included pictures indicating significant things in their life - a "PG" when Dad starting working at Proctor and Gamble, an artist's easle on my Mom's stocking.
- Driving with her around Toronto one day when I was perhaps 4 years old, having some great conversations.
- Her cooking at the cottage. She didn't swim much, and I was too young for Scrabble at the beginning, but I remember the lunches she brought down to the dock (with milk in coloured aluminum cups!), and I remember her offer to bake a blueberry pie if we collected 4 cups of wild blueberries (which are so tiny that you need a lot of them).
- Her visits to our family whenever a child was born while we were living out west.
- Living with Grandma and Grandpa when I studied Grade 13 at the Ontario Science Centre, and a year or two after. Having a teenager in the house again was undoubtedly a challenge, but she was gracious to me.
- Reading her books of family history and her own many stories, including her work as a missionary.