peace be with you

my sweet, sweet grandma will probably pass away tonight... along side of her are many of her wonderful children, holding her hands and sharing stories of their life together.  since i can't be there right now, i'd like to share a few of my favorite stories...
if there is one thing for sure, it would be that i loooved spending time with my grandma.
i loooved swimming in her pool, when she lived in california.
i loooved having sleepovers with her.  she would aaaalways let me sleep in her bed.  and before we went to bed she would turn on her special lamp -- the lamp played a lullaby and had a lily inside that changed colors as the song went on.   i loved to watch it change and felt so excited to be sleeping in my grandma's bed.
i loooved her closets.  they were filled to the top!!  she knew how to accessorize before it was even a trend. 
she was a great story teller.  she always knew exactly what kind of story to tell me-- it was usually about a princess who was named ashley, and this princess had long, blonde hair... these stories instantly caught my attention since they were obviously about me. ha!
my grandma was an amazing gardener.  her favorite flower was a purple iris.  she helped me start my very first garden which was of course, filled with purple iris's.
i went on a road trip with her to see a large iris farm, that was on the oregon coast.  kathy, jeff, corey and i all drove there together, in the white camry wagon.  kathy practiced her voice lessons, while jeff and corey ate stinky cheese and farted the whole way there.  i was totally entertained and excited by the whole thing.  when we got to the coast, we stayed at a hotel that was right on the beach.  grandma opened the curtains and showed me that the waves glowed in the night.  i thought that was so neat and it felt like such a special moment.  we then went and ran around on the beach in the dark.   later on, we stayed in another hotel {i'm not really sure where}.  it had an indoor pool and i didn't bring a bathing suit, so grandma purchased one for me.  come to find out--it was a paper bathing suit, which didn't work very well, so we all swam in our clothes.  i will never forget that trip.  i loved it!
as her dementia settled in a bit, she became quite the cougar with the gentlemen.  in fact, the first time she met chris she said this to him: "why don't you take off that hat and show me your hair."  {he did} "oh my, you remind me of the devil...because of how devilishly handsome you are!"  chris said "why thank you."
when i was home for christmas, i sat down with my grandma and showed her a picture of me.  i said "do you know who that is?"  she said "it's you!"  i said "that's right!  did you know that i am your granddaughter?"  she said "yes."  i said "do you know that i love you"  and she said "yes and i love you too."  she was fully present in that moment, which is rare these days, and i felt so touched by this.
grandma was filled with sass and class.  she had so much energy despite her illness... never letting it get her down.
i am so blessed that she was my grandma and will cherish the many memories we share together.
we will miss you.
xx