We miss your smile

December 18, 2005- one of the best days, ever

As I sit to write a few things about Gram, here in Kuwait is not where I want to be this week, but it’s where I have to be for now. I’ve thought a lot about what I could say if I were there, and there are just too many stories to tell!

Gram was a lady of preparedness. She was always ready for anything and ready to do anything anyone asked of her. 

She was always ready to have fun. I remember more than one time when I got to go to the movies with her when I was little, and she’d whip some “3 Musketeers” bars out of her purse. I think she might have even had two Pepsi’s- never Cokes- and sticks of Wrigley’s spearmint gum for when we were finished. Her handbags might have held anything!

She was also always ready for a sporting event. I can’t count how many of my softball games she came to, or during how many of Kenny’s baseball games I sat next to her in her flashy sun visor and photo-gray lenses. I still feel sorry for some of the refs that made bad calls.

Gram was always prepared to serve others, and never made it seem like an inconvenience, even if it was. She used to go visit one next door neighbor and take her grocery shopping. The only problem was that her neighbor had a large goose that lived in the yard and liked to bite! You knew Gram was going to Flossy’s house if she grabbed an umbrella on her way out the door on a sunny day.  

I think Gram liked to keep a lot of things around just in case she needed them, too. There was a master lock just sitting in one of her kitchen drawers that Christina, Kenny, Lisa and I tried to open for years. We never did open it, she didn’t know the combination for it, and I really don’t know where it has gone to this day. It’s probably still floating around her house somewhere.

Finally, I think Gram was prepared to be with God because she opted to not have surgery or chemotherapy after the news of her illness came. Because she had trusted God with her life, there wasn’t any need for her to have fear in the face of death. The Bible says that, “God showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Romans 5:8). Gram knew she was a sinner, but she also knew that God is merciful to those that trust in Him to be saved. I have the greatest confidence in saying that she is in Heaven now, because she believed these truths with her whole heart.

Chris and I agree that we will miss the smile and laugh we got from Gram whenever we were coming home for the summer or just coming over to say hi. We know she’s still smiling, and we send our love to you all.

(Written by Stephanie, to be read at her grandmother's funeral)