Grandma Orchard

Today is my Grandma Mary's funeral. She died when I was in Mexico at the age of 94. I am sad that she has passed but also feel like it was truly a blessing. She had significant dementia and had recently suffered a stroke which left her left side paralyzed.

My grandparents lived on a cherry orchard my entire childhood. After my grandpa passed, my grandma stayed on the orchard for several years, until we moved her to Portland.

When my kids were young, I would take them to Lewiston, ID. to stay with Grandma along with my cousin Chris and their two kids. When the boy was old enough to speak, he began calling her Grandma Orchard, which was really perfect.

Growing up, I loved visiting the orchard. It was big enough that you could run laps around it. There was a yard big enough that all of our cousins could play football, wiffle ball, you name it. My Grandma was a teacher who had file cabinets full of worksheets, coloring books, games. She had kept my mom and her sisters paper dolls which I absolutely loved. I would play for hours with paper Lucille ball and her family and several other famous actors. Amazingly, my Grandma gave me these paper dolls when I was in my 30's because she knew I would still love them. They are now in the girls room.

I loved being at the orchard because my grandparents were so unique to me. They composted (in the 70's!), they recycled, they were humanitarians. You had to use your manners. You had to help out.

She could be rather strict, actuallly:)

But she loved to laugh. My grandma had an excellent sense of humor and was always looking for the bright side of every situation. She loved hearing about what we were doing, how school was going and what we were reading.

When the dementia began, it was subtle. She would write her self notes, and then cross out the information and write the same thing again. She would trace over hand written envelopes. As it progressed, she would label pictures, incorrectly, with the name she thought belonged to the people in the picture.

It has been a while since I have seen my Grandma. And now that she is gone, and I know I will not see her again, I've been thinking, do I feel bad about not seeing her? And the answer is no. And yes. No, because the memories I have of her are alive in my head, my scrap book, the stories with my family. Yes, because she was my Grandma, even though she wouldn't know who I was.

Today is the funeral. Following the funeral we are hosting dinner for some of our family. It should be a good celebration.