gramma martha

Dear Gramma Martha,

You have gone to be with the Lord today.  Though I will miss you so much, I know where you are is even more wonderful than the human mind can imagine.  If I did have to imagine, I would picture your body fully healed, and you are hugging your beloved husband, Grampa Frank.  You would be laughing and smiling with my mom, and telling her to fix her hair and put on more lipstick.  You are no longer tired and in pain, but you are made whole and perfect by Jesus.

Gramma, you have not even been gone for a day, but I already miss you so much.  I will miss you calling me “Chickadee”, I will miss your cheery sing-song voice, and your constant upbeat attitude about life.  I will miss having to remind you my name is Gayle, not Linda, but I will miss you calling me Linda because I was blessed enough to look like my mother, and a lot like you.  I will miss coming to visit you, and you making a meal to feed an army and eating so much I was in pain.  I will (sort of) miss the hurt look on your face when I told you I did not want ice cream because you had already given me pie and cake and cookies and ruschki (and the meal to feed an army), but then you were always okay with it because you would eat the ice cream yourself.  I will miss you bugging me to learn how to make sausage—I’m sorry, I am not going anywhere near intestines.  I will miss you talking about your little “companion”, Twerpie, and that you would feed her an egg every morning, and said “what I eat, she eats”.  You loved that little dog, and I know she misses you, too.  I will miss making ruschki and haloushi with you.  I will miss talking about my mom with you, you loved her so much, and it was always so interesting, me, her daughter, talking to you, her mother, about her.  You loved your Linny Sue, and I will miss your memories of her and all of the wonderful things you were able to share with me about her that I would never have known otherwise.  I will miss your visits at Thanksgiving, and the fact that the boys would tease you and you wouldn’t even know it—but it was all in good fun.  I will miss the fact that sometimes you would give me my Christmas card in May, and sometimes forget that you had given it to me and sending me another one.  I will miss your garden and the smell of dill and parsley in your back yard.  I will miss your hugs.  I will miss how happy your family made you—you made us so happy.  I will miss you always being so excited to hear from me, and when I called you just because.  I will miss hearing you answer the phone.  I will miss your handwriting.  I miss that you always thought of us.  I will miss your presence and your love and about a zillion other things about you that I love so much.

Thank you for being my Gramma.  You are and always will be the best Gramma I could have ever asked for.  I wish you didn’t have to go, but I know someday… someday, I will be laughing and smiling and hugging you, and Grampa Frank, and my mom, too.  I will look for you.

Your forever loving granddaughter,

Chickadee (Gayle)