In memory of...

On my seventh birthday a box was delivered to my house from Omak. I opened it and buried my face in the soft folds of hand stitched shapes and colors. The smell was what I wanted most. It was the smell of Grandma's house on the hill. Grandma made a quilt for every one of her children and grand children. I had one with bunnies on it when I was a baby and she even made me a little one for my doll. Now I had a full sized one for my bed. A big warm piece of grandma to snuggle under at night. I would bring the corner where she had neatly stitched her name and the date up to my face and lie against it and breath deeply. It was almost like being in Grandma's house.
Grandma and Dada's house was on a hill in the middle of an apple orchard. From her kitchen window you could see across the orchard to the great hills surrounding the Okanogan Valley. Standing on the deck at the back of the house the air was chill and breezy. Grandma would sit on the bench swing with a grand child on each side. There was a long cord tied to the deck railing behind the swing with a spool on the end. This Grandma would pull to make the swing rock gently. But she was more often to be found in the living room. She would sit on her rocking chair by the fire with Tonka the husky lying on his blanket. There were stories to read. Some little grandchild would crawl onto her lap bringing Uncle Remus tales. We loved to hear her read the story of Brer Rabit and the Tar Baby.
Gradma was a famous cook. She had diabetes. So she couldn't eat much sugar but she made fabulous cakes at birthdays and wonderful meals of every kind. "It is a great act of love to make a meal for some one which you yourself cannot eat." My uncle would remind us. It has been so long since I've tasted her cooking that I hardly know what it was like but I remember that it was good and I never worried too much about not liking things.
Grandma was proud and dignified. She moved with a slow grace and and kept her house with proud precision. She was an old school home maker. She and Dada had raised two girls and six boys together! One felt very cared for when you stayed with her.
Some years ago she moved to a nursing home. Alzheimer's could slow her down but it could not rob her of her dignity.
She died yesterday morning. After so much suffering it's finally finished. Just days after the feast of All Souls, she finished the race.

May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.