Grandma J

My grandmother passed away on Friday, April 13. She would have been 87 next Thursday.

She was strikingly beautiful when she was younger. As she aged, she was very concerned about her appearance. She had a brain tumor, and that made one side of her face droop. She never could smile like she wanted, and she didn't like how she looked in pictures. I'll post ones of her when she was 19, since that's how she would have wanted to be remembered.

Thankfully, the end came fast. Less than 24 hours after we got the call that she was taken to the ER, she was gone. That's what she would have wanted. She never wanted to go into a nursing home, rely on anyone for help, or be any bit of trouble. She lived in an apartment by herself. She was independent until the very end.

We have a very small family. Grandma J had two daughters. She had three grandkids, and two great-grandbabies, one of which she never got to meet. My daughter was the light of her life. We were coming for a visit this weekend, and she had been talking non-stop about how excited she was to see her. We made it to the hospital Thursday night, but Grandma J didn't even know we were there.

We are planning the arrangements now. My aunt flew in from Chicago, and my sister will be in from New York around midnight tonight. Grandma J wanted something very simple for a service. She wants to be cremated, and she has a plot and tombstone next to my grandfather in Illinois.

Everyone who ever met her loved her. My mom's friends would stop by and visit her, not because they felt any obligation to, but because she was genuinely a nice person to talk to and visit. My friends and my sister's friends loved to stop by and see her when they were in town. She never had a cross word to say about anyone, and she never complained about a thing. She never wanted to take up our time, but it was our pleasure to get to spend time with her.

We will all miss her.