Grateful #13

Here's a good shot of Gram and her handsome, loving husband. My grand-dad is an awesome person - so fun and interesting. I'm grateful that they had one another.

Making Do, part 4 (remember that I wrote this a few years ago):

Gram lives far away from us again. She is eighty years old. She is now tiny and frail, but her spirit is larger than life. She tells me sometimes that she is ready to die, ready to meet God. She talks a lot about her childhood, her family, and her old friends. I wonder if she is telling me without saying so that I must not forget her parents and grandparents. She tells me about her faith, how it is stronger than ever, that I must not ever give up in my walk with God. She tells me that life is hard sometimes, but things always come right in the end, that the answers don’t come before I’ve asked the questions. She tells me about the people in her life, her neighbors and church friends, how she loves them, how kindly they treat her. Gram shows me her latest craft project and tells me again to take all of her yarn when she dies. I promise to remember that she taught me how to knit and remind her how much fun we’ve had learning new ways to make an afghan out of leftover bits of yarn. I tell Gram that someday I’ll teach my own granddaughter how to love the feeling of making something beautiful out of what you have on hand. I try to show her that I’ve listened to her wisdom and that I love her. I try to show her that I’ve learned how to make do.


It's been hard on me the last year, trying to get along without Gram. I'll think of something I want to tell her, or make something I want to show her, and then I'll remember she's gone and it will feel like I just lost her all over again.

I think it's been hard on the whole family. Family, I'm grateful for all of you.