Days of Remembering

This week is a big one for birthdays on my side of the family. And perhaps because I remember numbers, two of the birthdays I think about are for people who have already ended their time here on earth.

Yesterday my Grandma (my dad's mom ~ Ruby Lucile Gish Evans) would have celebrated her 101st birthday, should she still have been with us. For her sake, we're glad she was released from this life because she longed for that for several years before she died. She was the last of the five siblings, and she was ready for that reunion. 101 sounds like a lot, but her mother (my Great Grandmother) lived to just a few weeks before her 108th. As it was, Grandma celebrated her 93rd birthday before her death in December of 2000.

I've thought a considerable amount about my Grandma the past several weeks as I see her in Emily. Especially in her eyes. The shape and Emily's gaze sometimes resemble Grandma so much. Elizabeth used to blink like Grandma, and now we see her again in Emily. It's amazing how something so scientific as genetics can bring on emotional memories.
When we moved to Idaho in 1984, I still don't know why we moved closer to my dad's mother considering my parents were newly divorced and my dad stayed in New Mexico. Why did my mom choose Idaho? It's a question that gets to wait to be answered. But I'm so glad we did, because of course my life would not have turned out like it has, and things are pretty darn good the way they are. I'm grateful not to have to wonder about what might have been.

My grandma was the epitome of Christianity. Her motto was that she was sometimes alone but never lonely. She sat in her chair in her living room, with her hand casually turned upward in her lap which to me was always an indication of her relationship with her Savior. She filled her days with service, and did not forget her family in the process. She would host breakfasts for my mom and me every Saturday morning, after my mom got off work. I ate a lot of Raisin Bran sitting at her table.
She was often my chauffeur when I needed to get to piano lessons. I'm grateful to still be alive as her driving was scary even way back then, but that's another story.....

Her house was just around the corner for a lot of the time I was growing up, which meant I could pop over when homework got the best of me or when I had a project I knew she could help with. When as a Freshman, I had to memorize all of the Roman and Greek Gods' names and their facts, she was the one who helped me. When in High School my best friend and I were doing a project on FDR, she was the one we went to, since she was alive when he was president. I still smile when I think about that conversation. We came to her with our classroom knowledge ~ how popular and loved FDR was, and how much he did for the country. Grandma offered another view. "We didn't vote for him," she said. "He was a Democrat!". It opened our eyes and made that time in history more real for us.
There's much more to Grandma's biography than I can write here today. And much more how her presence was a powerful influence for good as I grew. It is a pleasure to think on her a bit more this week.

Both of my grandmas celebrate their birthdays this week. My other Grandma (Opal Elizabeth Wilhelmina Knight Montgomery) will celebrate her 90th birthday tomorrow. She is still doing great in Roswell, New Mexico. She is funny and fiesty and always telling me how busy I am.

My mother was born on her mother's birthday and would have celebrated her 65th birthday tomorrow, should she still be celebrating birthdays with us. It's too much to try to capture her and her influence in a short synopsis, but I remember Sam Bass from the Idaho Press Tribune starting his article on her with "she was a big lady with a big heart" just after she died. That is the truth.

Just yesterday I was straightening a pile of books we have waiting for a shelf in the hallway, and Nathan was sitting on my hope chest, pointing at the pictures in our collage frame on the wall. He found one of my mom holding Liz during our visit to Roswell when she was four months old. I don't remember how he said it exactly, but he asked who that was. And that always pangs me a little with a feeling of sadness that my younger kids will only know their Grandma in pictures, but is part of the package we received when we lost my mom so much sooner than we thought. I told him that was Grandma ~ the first of many times I know we'll have this conversation.

So this week is a week of remembering for me ~ not only remembering these incredible women, but also how blessed I am to be able to have them to remember.