The Best

I started writing this post in January of 2014 for Sullivan. I was writing a little blurb about all the family that he wouldn't have the pleasure of knowing. Three years later, I was reviewing my notes and I became very nostalgic. Add to that the fact that my mom sent me pictures of myself as a baby and one of them was my Grandma Katherine holding me on my first birthday. I know my children will never know her and that breaks my heart. I am so fortunate that Travis got to meet her and come to know her, and that she was lucid enough to tell me how much she adored him and was happy he was a part of my life. So, to my kids, here is a little bit about the the best lady you will never meet. To those who knew her, comment and share some of your favorite memories about my favorite person.

Ruby Katherine, my maternal grandmother, was the wife of Harvey and the mother three girls, Lanita, Shelley (my mother), and Ricque. She lived with her family in the small Oklahoma town of Watonga. This town was so small, my cousins and I were allowed to walk to the library and park by ourselves and no one really worried about where we were. When you went anywhere in this town with Grandma Kat, she had someone she could stop and talk to . She was such a social butterfly and never met a stranger. She honestly couldn’t go anywhere without seeing someone she knew, or making a new friend. Don't know her? Tha'ts okay! She will talk to you as if she did. Grandma loved everyone, and everyone loved her. She was even close to her mail man just from seeing him daily. She answered the phone “y’ello” which was her mid-Oklahoma southern accent way of saying “hello”. Next to her phone was a book where she kept little facts about people. Birthdays, anniversaries, prayers needed, congratulations to send, etc. I have the calendar she kept the year that I was born. It is full of notes about me, such as the days I tried to eat solid foods, when I smiled, crawled, etc. She kept a photo album for each of her seven grandchildren. She filled them with pictures over the years and as we grew up and started families of our own, she passed them on to us. She loved keeping up with people and memories and milestones were very important to her. I definitely don't keep in touch with people as well as she did, but I did get my love for nostalgia and sentimentality from her.

Grandma was a great baker. She always had her freezer full of homemade loaves of bread and rolls. She always had the “good cereal” in her cabinet right next to the Raisin Bran, a stock pile of canned goods in an open pantry behind the back door, and jarred green beans she canned herself in her cellar. She made the most amazing hot rolls (I liked them cold, so she called them my "cold rolls".) and this pineapple lemon fluffy salad that is to die for. I make it all the time now, thanks to her. You never left Grandma's house hungry or empty handed. She quilted, sewed, knitted, crocheted, cross stitched, made Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, and made teddy bears and doll clothes. Not to mention, she made clothes for your my brother and I and our cousins.

Grandma Katherine was the epitome of the "perfect" grandma. Her arms were always ready for a hug and she was on deck with a kind word. Her house always smelled of wood smoke, Granddad Harvey’s pipe tobacco (a delicious sweet Borcum Riff, if I remember correctly), bacon, and something baking. Her kitchen was covered in a bright green linoleum and the cabinets were hand made by Granddaddy. She had shelves full of antique tins and blacksmithing tools, as well as tchotchkes and trinkets. She collected little knickknacks on her daily walks (mostly match box cars) and they lined the bricks of her fire place. She was short with bright blue eyes and stark white hair that turned that color when she was just 18. She always wore elastic waisted pants and orthopedic shoes with a sweatshirt that usually said, “I love my grandkids”, or something of the like. She wrote letters every single day, keeping a calendar to keep track of who was due, and was always checking in on her fellow church parishioners or the shut in’s, and she volunteered her time in the hospital auxiliary.

Grandma was the eternal caregiver. Whether you were nursing a cold or something more serious. She took care of ailing parents, a sister who had cancer, then her own husband (my Granddaddy) who had cancer and passed away in 1996. She lived alone after that, seeing much joy and heartache through the years, losing her daughter and son-in-law within a few months of each other. She moved in with my mom after she fell and broke her hip. They soon thereafter moved to Illinois to be closer to me. She was going through the stages of alzheimers and demensia, but still never met a stranger. In a new home, with new surroundings, and losing her memory, she still was a happy lady. She would watch tv and then swear she had lunch with the characters. It was sad and funny at the same time. We would joke that each day we were her new friends.

Despite her laps of confusion, when she found out Travis and I were getting married, she was absolutely extatic. She loved Travis and knew what a wonderful husband he was going to be and knew that someday he would be an amazing father as well. She dreamed of my future children. For herself, but also for me. She wanted me to know the joy that only motherhood can bring. Travis proposed to me in February. Grandma was diagnosed with kidney cancer in March. I showed her a picture on my computer of the wedding dress I had picked out and she cried. I think she knew she wouldn’t be there. She passed away in April of 2011 and I miss her so much. I hope to be half the woman she was. I'm thankful that my memories are a blueprint to how she lived her life. She was truly loved by so many and I can only hope to have absorbed some of her character and that I can pass those traits on to my children. When I'm gone, I can only hope to have left a lasting impression on others and that they will remember me so fondly.