Remembering Grandma...

Today started out as almost every Sunday does for us.  I was the first one up, enjoying the sights and sounds of early morning before everyone in our house, dogs included, is up and awake for the day.  Shortly after 7 a.m., my phone rang and when I saw it was my Dad on the phone, I figured this was probably the call that I'd been dreading to hear for some time and it was.  He informed me that my Grandma had passed away about 3:30 a.m. and while this was news that I didn't want to hear, I almost felt a sigh of relief escape my body after hanging up the phone.  Grandma was 97, had lived a very full life living on her own until just two months ago, and she was "ready to go."  Her hearing had been going for some time now, her eyesight was very poor and her body was just failing.  She had been waiting for the day that she could be reunited with Grandpa, the love of her life, and meet up her Maker for eternity in Heaven and she got that day today.

Gram played a very important role in my life.  She and my Grandpa became second parents to my sister and me when our parents were going through their divorce.  We lived with Gram and Grandpa during this time and after our Dad remarried, we spent almost every Sunday with Gram and Grandpa doing such fun things as going to church, fishing, teaching us how to drive and taking us for our road tests, going for rides, playing cards and lots and lots of music.

Gram hailed from Mount Tabor, WI, which is very near where I live now.  She used to tell my sister and me that we should really find a boy from Hillsboro to marry as those Bohemians are great people!  (Hillsboro prides itself on being the Czech Capital of Wisconsin and is full of Bohemians and I'm proud to say that I'm one of them!)  I did heed Gram's advice and found a Hillsboro boy in 1992 and even though it took him 4 years to get up the courage to ask me to marry him, he did 18 years ago tomorrow and we were married just a few months later.  He may not have been Bohemian, but he was Irish and Gram approved of him. 

Gram could cook like no other.  Her kolache was the absolute best!  I remember when I was little and Gram would make that and all the cousins would come running once word got out that she had made kolache.  She made poppyseed, prune, apricot and apple and we all had our favorites.  Mine was prune.  On Christmas Eves, the entire Bell Family could be found at Grandma and Grandpa's after chores, waiting to eat that kolache she had made.  Many have tried to replicate her recipe and my sister-in-law, Lisa, has come the closest.  Her kolaches are just like Gram's!

I'm very lucky that our boys got to know Gram, too.  They loved going to visit her and see the cows across the road from her house.  She always had candy in her candy dish and that's something the boys never forgot: the candy and where she kept her little cans of pop.

Gram's funeral will be later this week and I know that's going to be an incredibly difficult day for me, but I need to remember the bigger picture.  She's in Heaven now and I will see her again.  She has taught me so much about how I should live my life and I could never thank her enough for all she has done for me.  

Love you, Gram! <3