My grandma passed away on Monday. She was my last surviving grandparent, at 89 years old. Longevity runs in our family - her father lived to be 103! (which means my mother will be around forever too!) She had been struggling for the past year or so, and took a turn for the worse in the last few months. She basically got tired. She knew she was dying, and seemed really at peace with it. It's strange to think that she's gone though, since she lived far away, and i only saw her about once or twice a year. Her name was Frances, and that is Sadie's middle name. i was so dissapointed because i had sent a big picture of sadie to my sister's house in san diego, with a note asking her to take it to grandma, so she could see her "namesake." the day that i got the news the she had passed, i got the picture back in the mail marked "undeliverable." i think i put the wrong address. so she never got to see sadie. but mom did tell me how pleased she was when she told her the name, so i guess it's a little consolation.

One of my favorite memories of my grandma is shopping with her. she loved to go christmas shopping with us on the day after thanksgiving, she she and grandpa and uncle bud would always come to houston on thanksgiving. i was always excited for this, because the stylish clothes that we wanted, mom didn't like, but grandma had great taste, and would buy them for us. looking back, i'm sure it wasn't just keen fashion sense, just willing indulgence. i remember picking out a stuffed animal with her once - she had me line up all the same bears and pick the one who looked the best, and wasn't "making a funny face." and once you look at them, they usually do look different, and you have to choose the one with the most friendly face!

Grandma always talked about her "cooking lady" on tv. every year at thanksgiving, she and mom would talk about the turkey dinner, and discuss how to cook the bird, as if they'd never done one before. Grandma would tell us what her "cooking lady" suggests regarding thawing out the bird, or cooking it breast up or down, or whether or not to baste. i'm pretty sure it got cooked the same way every year, but of course it was always necessary for she and mom to hash it all out the night before to make sure it got done right. and of course, grandma always made the gravy from scratch, with the drippings. we all know grandma made the best gravy, and we would all pay attention to this part, because it was her specialty.

grandma and grandpa (before he died 5 years ago) and uncle bud would come every year for thanksgiving. they had their same routine - get up in the morning and take a walk, come back and watch their news shows. we would put on the football games, and grandma would say how silly she thinks football players are, when they run straight ahead into the other team to get tackled, instead of run around them! 4 oclock was always happy hour, and grandma and grandpa would usually split a beer.

grandma also loved baseball, especially the dodgers. she would also say she hated the giants almost as much as she loved the dodgers! she had been a dodger fan since she was a little girl living in yakima washington, when they were the brooklyn dodgers. imagine her delight when they both ended up in los angeles!

grandma said all kinds of funny things that have become our family's inside jokes. she once asked katie, "katie, do you ever make garth (her husband) a pie? men like pies." so to this day, garth often tells katie, "you should make me a pie. men like pies." grandma also commented once, when noah was losing his teeth at around 8 years old, that "it's not fair that when kids loose their teeth, they look cute, but when old people loose their teeth they look terrible!" of course, she never lost any of her teeth - which she attributes to always using toothpicks all her life!!

there are so many memories i have of my grandma, and although we are glad she is at rest, with grandpa, and at peace she will be missed.