The time has come that I had to say my good-byes to my Mema. She is and will be the last of my grandparents so to speak. My dad's mom is still a live, but I never really knew her as I have mentioned in a prior entry.
So instead of talking about the last few months or years of Mema's health battles instead I am going to share what type of person my grandmother was to me and who she was the way I saw her. She was a stern woman who knew what she wanted and how she wanted it, which at times, in life, isn't always a bad thing. She would consistently keep her mind fresh and always had the itch to learn new things. She loved to read, loved to do crossword puzzles, loved to send cards to anybody and everybody whether it was for the holidays, special occasions, or just to say "I am thinking of you". Mema was a strong-willed, stubborn, tell-you-like-it-is Irish woman, which I loved that about her (unless she directed it at me). But she was also loving, supportive, passionate, and caring to me, her granddaughter. She always loved the gifts I got her, or so she gave the impression she did. I could get her anything with penguins, Garfield, cats, koala bears, or even Eeyore on it and she would go nuts over it. So nuts in fact, that if it was a stuffed animal she would place them somewhere around her TV area or close by the front door so when people came to the door she could tell people about them. She was a nurse who worked hard at her job, because taking care of people was what she loved to do. As a mother she may not have always been there for her daughter, my mom, but as a grandmother she was there for me and encouraging me along with my parents.
Every year at Thanksgiving she would bring one specific VHS tape (yes, that's right, VHS tapes was the cool technology when I was younger), that had Mickey's Christmas Carol and How The Grinch Stole Christmas on it. She would always bring me the latest Disney movies too, but that was the one and only tape I would want and expect every year to watch on Thanksgiving Day and everyday that follow all the way up until Christmas Day. Another memory I have of Mema and that I have turned into my own family tradition is personalized ornaments. I will pass this tradition on to my kids like she passed it onto me. See, each Christmas instead of signing a little sticker saying "to and from" our Christmas presents, she would picked out specific ornaments that matched our personalities or interest and had our names and year place on them. Not many people would care nor probably connect the dots with this tradition, but I did. So yes, each year that's what I do for my family.
Mema loved to tell me stories of her childhood and at the time I didn't enjoy listening to them, and it wasn't until I was much older and much too late to appreciate them. There is so much more that I could list off because she had 85 years of her life to do and talk about.
I remember Mema driving me all the way to down town Phoenix to see Fantasia, showing for the first time in theaters. I also remember being embarrassed driving around with her in her bright orange "pumpkin" Datsun car, with the gray, fuzzy cat like steering wheel cover. But she drove that car around town with great pride. Yes, my grandmother was one of those scary, crazy, old lady drivers, but I loved her anyways for it.
If I ever was an inconvenience to her she never showed it or if she did I was in my own little world to even notice it. Towards the end when she was still semi-coherent she would light up in excitement to see me. Her expression was like... she had just won the lottery. When she talked about me to others she talked with great pride in her voice. She was always so proud of me and my accomplishments in life. Besides my parents she would be the next person in line that I couldn't wait to go show off my design projects to, or my sports awards/trophies, or anything else of mine. She always made the things I did seem like it was the best thing in the world.
She wasn't the type of grandmother to bake cookies, or go shopping with. But she was the type of grandmother to teach me how to sew if I could have sat down long enough to learn, the type of grandmother to encourage reading, if I was the type of granddaughter who enjoyed reading at a young age, but the one thing she could get me to do with her was to watch Disney movies with her.
But the time has come for me to tell her good-bye, that I love her, and that she will be missed was today. Thanks Mema for loving me so...
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