Memorial Day

I love Memorial Day.  It is a day to reminisce about family and those who have helped shape our lives.  I remember as a kid hating it though.  We always had to travel to Henefer then to Ogden, then to Brigham City to decorate the graves of my grandparents and great grandparents.  It seemed like it took all day.  What I wouldn't give to do it again with my brother and sisters.  (He's touching me - Are we there yet?, How much longer?)

We would go to Henefer to decorate the graves of my great-grandparents.  I never knew them.  My grandmother didn't even know them.  Her mother died when she was born and her father died when she was just 18 months old.  She had been raised by her grandparents with her aunt as her sibling.  They had a hard life on the farm, but a wonderful life.  She was a funny lady with a very dry wit.  She could sew anything.  She used to make her own patterns.  If her girls wanted a new fancy dress like the one's in the store window, she would make her pattern and they would get their dress, and it would be every bit as beautiful as the ones at the store.  She loved her grandparents that raised her and she would tell us stories about them.  I'm grateful she would bring them to life so that we could know them a little.

Her husband - my grandfather on my mother's side died of cancer when I was 10.  There are a few things I remember about him.  He walked with a waddle, because the small toe of one of his feet had been broken and never set right, so he waddled.  He would always watch the world series.  It was one of his favorite things to do.  He would bet us a nickel as to who would win.  I think he did this so we would be quiet and watch it with him, but we thought it was fun to do such a grown-up thing.  He also always had rum-flavored lifesavers for us to eat.  We would go to their house on the 24th of July and walk with all of my aunts and uncles and cousins to the Ogden City parade.  It was so fun!

My father's parents were also in our lives, though I didn't know them quite as well, and I am sorry for that.  I do remember that my grandmother was a gardener.  She could grow anything.  She even had a lemon tree that really produced in her kitchen along with a banana tree (I never saw any bananas on it).  That was quite a feat in Utah.  Her flower gardens were huge and beautiful.  She had so many kinds of flowers.   I remember going to their house and she would have ordering books out to order new bulbs for the next fall.  She also had so many books on her bookshelves.  I guess that's where I got my love of reading from.  I didn't get her talent for growing things.  I usually kill plants.  My sister got that talent.  My grandmother's house always smelled like perking coffee or burnt popcorn.  She used to pop her popcorn on the stove top in a cast iron frying pan.  I don't drink coffee, but to this day I love the smell.  I don't mind the smell of burnt pop corn either as they are wonderful memories.

She also helped with my great grandparents, and so I knew them before they died.  They were small, frail, and white haired before I knew them, but I always felt loved by them. 

My grandfather lost part of his leg when my father was in high school.  He was a very hard working man and I know that is where my father got his work ethic, which he has passed on to us his children.  My grandfather had deep red hair and freckles.  He was a kindly man and liked to work with motors and engines.  He could fix almost anything given time.  I got to know him a little better than my grandmother as he lived with my parents for a year or so before he died.  He was lonely for my grandmother and had decided he was done.  So he stopped eating and drinking and willed himself to die.  He was gone in 3 days.   

I was truly blessed in my life to have known these wonderful people that helped shape my life.  I love Memorial Day.  I like taking the time to remember.