I know that this does not provide a very good description of how close we truly were, but maybe this will help. When my grandparents built a house when I was roughly six years old or so, they added a little apartment onto it just for her.
From that time on, whenever we went to visit my grandparents, I would always spend much of my time with my great grandma. Whatever she was doing, I would get right there in the middle of it, and she never seamed to mind at all. she taught me to crochet, and tie quilts (neither of which I remember how to do today,) and she kept me supplied in underwear. :) every few months when she would get her latest SEARS catalog she she would open it up to the underwear page, and point out which ones I could choose from, then within a few weeks they would be waiting for me at her house.
Eventually my great grandma got Aylmer's disease, and as her mind deteriorated, she began to forget who people were. She remembered their names, but she could never put the right name with the right face. This was the case with everyone but me. she always knew exactly who I was up until the very end of her life, and she would cary on conversations with me..... although they were very simple, they were complete. This was often a little startling because she would say something to me, then she would turn her attention to a part of the room that was empty and say something to someone who I couldn't see, often my great grandpa who passed away long before I was born, and then she would turn back to me and pick up our conversation right where she left off.
When the time came that we knew that she only had a short time left with us, I took it very hard. I went to bed, and just cried, and cried for hours until my mom finally took me down to say goodbye to my great grandma and best friend in the whole wide world. It was very, very hard to say goodbye to my grandma, but as I left her room I felt a sense of peace and comfort.
She passed away the next day while I was at school.
When all of this happened I was 13 years old, and I was just starting to babysit my siblings until about midnight all by myself while my parents worked. I felt very grown up, however, when I went to bed on those nights I would sometimes feel a little scared. One of these nights happened just a couple of days after my grandma passed away. I was scared and hiding under the covers like the chicken that I was, and after a few minutes I didn't feel afraid anymore, and I felt like something in the room had changed. So I poked my face out of the blanket, and there was my grandma! There was a guy with her too, but I didn't recognize him. My guess was that it was my great grandpa. They didn't move, or talk to me, or anything like that, it was more like I was seeing a picture of them, except the sense of calm that the brought into the room was so real, I could feel it in every part of my body. I just laid there for a few minutes with my mouth hanging open, and I just stared. Eventually I closed my eyes, and when I opened them my grandma was not there anymore, but I could feel her there, and the peace never left.
Nothing like that have ever happened to me since then, but I often think of her, and since I moved into this house that I live in now, I have started remembering her in a funny little way.
If you remember at the beginning of this post I mentioned that my grandma used to feed me cream of chicken soup, bread & butter, and I just remembered the 3rd. one, cheese & butter sandwiches. Well over roughly the past year or so, I have noticed that out of the blue I will suddenly crave one of these things to eat for absolutely no reason at all.
Tonight is a perfect example of this. I had just finished eating dinner, so I wasn't hungry, but as I was taking my plate to the sink, I suddenly got this overwhelming craving for a piece of buttered bread. It was such a strong craving that I could taste it, it reminded me of the cravings that I used to have when I was pregnant, and no I am not hinting at anything: I am not pregnant, nor do I plan to be right now, the craving just reminded me of that. As I was getting the bread, I suddenly started thinking of my grandma, and it was a thought came out of nowhere! This is the third time that this has happened to me since I have lived in this house. Each time it has been with a different one of the foods that my grandma and I used to enjoy together, but the feeling is exactly the same! I like to think that it means that she's maybe letting me know in a small way that she is watching over me. I know that this probably isn't the case, and I am probably reading too much into it, but it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling anyway, and it reminds me of how lucky I am that I am a part on an eternal family, and I am very grateful for that!
Thanks for sharing this story, Court :) It reminds me of the time I saw my great grandma and grandpa after Grandma died. I had just recently grown close to her, and I was really sad when she passed. That summer (a few months after her death) I was staying in the family cabin with my grandparents. I woke up that night to see my great grandma standing at the end of the bed. My great grandpa (whom I never met) was sitting on the edge of the other bed in the room. The cabin had belonged to my great grandparents, and I just know that they still visit it to this day, from time to time. At the time, I was quite unnerved by the visit, but now, I wish I could see them again. :)
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