Crew Mom: Good-bye, Granny

Granny Mary

August 1925 - April 2012

My Granny, my last grandparent, passed away a couple of days ago. She was 86 years old and lived on her own up until about a year ago when she fell and severely broke her arm. Granny had to relocate to a nursing home for rehabilitation. After her arm was healed, Granny decided not to go back to her apartment and instead, stay at the nursing center. She realized that her health was failing and she could no longer live on her own.

Several years ago, Granny began to lose her hearing and a couple of years ago she also began to lose her sight as well. Knowing this, my last visit with her (less than a month ago) was amazing. The kids and I stopped by to see Granny while we were in my hometown for my uncle's funeral. Anna, the theater princess, was pretending to be a bird by flapping her arms and saying, "Tweet tweet". Granny got a kick out of the performance and would call back, "Tweet tweet, where's my bird?" We were all astonished at how much she was hearing (and I suspect seeing). I don't hesitate to say it was the best personal visit I had with her in a long time.

I mention "personal visit" because Granny and I also had some nice talks when she lived in her apartment. She had a special phone that helped her hear the caller so it was often easier to visit with her by phone. She loved Danielle Steel and I am a fan of Nora Roberts so we had an appreciation of romance novels in common. We'd talk about books (Granny had large print ones and then audio ones). When she had run out of Danielle Steel to read, I made suggestions of other authors for her to try. We also talked about family. I was/am doing research on my family tree and Granny was helpful in providing information about her family as well as information on my grandfather's family since he died in 1979.

I was my Granny's only red headed grandchild. For as long as I can remember, Granny has had snow white hair, but she was redheaded, as was my dad. Every time I see a snow white hair pop up on my head, I think of Granny and I think I always will. One of these days (way, way in the future) I hope to have a whole head full of snow white hair like her.

We love you, Granny.