Family and Grandma

You never truly know how much someone means to you until they are gone. All of the hot summer days spent at her house, the home cooked meals for lunch, the daily routine of watching game shows on GSN, the hours and hours of playing monopoly, and working the concession stand at Evans Park for the summer are now just cherished memories that I have with my grandma.

Right when I walked through the door, I got a burst of happiness. I felt safe, warm, and loved. The house smelled just like a fresh batch of moist, delicious brownies right out of the oven. There wasn't a single time I walked through the door and felt disappointed or sad. This feeling is just one of the many reasons my grandma had a huge impact on my life.

My grandma became a big part of my life and no one can ever replace her or all the things she has taught me. Then, just a few years ago, I heard something that still haunts me to this day.

Everyone goes through rough patches in their life. Some of these patches are easy to accomplish and easy to get over. Our medicine has gotten better over time, but years ago the survival rate wasn’t that good. My grandma whose name is Linda is a breast cancer survivor and also survived with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Not everyone in this world can say she has have survived cancer this many times, especially with such low survival rates. My Grandma still puts a smile on everyone faces even when she’s in pain. She makes all of her children and grandchildren beautiful quilts, so we can have something to remember her by, if something were to happen. She loves to bake. There isn’t one occasion that there won’t be some type of desert made by her. She has so many beautiful talents.

Grandma and Grandpa are probably some of the most amazing people in the world. I am really blessed to be so close with grandma and grandpa. Both distance wise and relationship wise. I don’t even know where to start. Between all the cooking lessons, rock shows, R.V. shows, birthdays, track meets, concerts, holidays, dinners, snakes, shopping trips and so on I have a lot of ground to cover in not a lot of time. I’ll start with the cooking lessons.

My grandma had survived a hard life, and yet managed to raise four responsible, well-educated, and successful children. All this she did while working as a respected psychiatric nurse and a state mental health board member. Although she had had and was still overcoming trials in life, I always knew she would be there and cared about me and my life. As my brother and I grew older and were unable to visit my grandparents as often as we

Some of my favorite moments with my grandfather were how we always did everything together. I was glad I lived with my grandparents. Stuff with my actual family weren’t the best, because they thought they couldn’t handle me. My grandfather and I had so much fun throughout the years. We enjoyed going for ice cream the most. We always had the same ice cream every once in a while, but occasionally we would change it up a little. We usually grabbed chocolate ice cream for a treat, but sometimes we would decide we want a twist ice cream. I loved spending time with my grandfather.

Some of my favorite precious moments happened in grandmas kitchen each and every time we visit. Whether it was just eating some of her delicious cookies or dancing, talking, or watching the windows. The atmosphere all around grandmas house was filled with lots of sweetness joy and peace inside and out. The smell of sweet cookies over home cooked meals covering flung over the table. Fresh cold drinks like grandma got it straight from the sky. There was lemonade, milk, and coffee smelling like she hand made them with the ripest lemons, milk straight from the cow and coffee fresh from the beans. Only grandma could make it smell like that.

My Nana was a person who always claimed to appreciate the simple things in life: a hot cup of coffee, gardening, walking the dog, and the ability to laugh at oneself when things go wrong. For her 90th birthday my mother and I decided to plan her a surprise party under the premise it was just going to be the three of us, instead of two dozen family and friends.

My Grandma Buhl could be described in one term: life of the party. Although she is my grandma, I like to think of her fitting into the “crazy aunt” category. Her animation and liveliness have been present to me throughout my entire life. The spirit she has is a constant reminder of how fortunate I am to have a close, loving, and supportive family. One example of her energy occurred recently on a very important day in her life: her wedding.

My grandparents got married at a courthouse, and they lasted for seventy years before they passed away. When I was younger, I asked them what it took to make a marriage last that long, and they said a lot of compromise and love. They said they may have had a lot of stress and arguments, but they always worked through it together and talked things out. The only serious argument I ever remember them having was when I was a child. My grandfather used to joke that he was going to trade my grandmother in for a newer model. Well one day while fixing breakfast he told her that and it was the last straw she had on hearing that saying, so she picked up the cast iron skillet and threatened to knock him out with it if he ever said that again. About an hour or so later they were making up and hugging each other, and he told her “Dear you know I'd never trade you in, you're my other half.” Even though they had been together all those years they still showed each other how much they cared for and loved one another. Even if it was a small thing like him buying flowers on a random day for her or her getting a new tie for him for church, they were each other's soul mates. When they got married my grandmother was only eighteen and my grandfather was twenty-two they ended up having four kids and a bunch of grand kids and great grand kids. We were a very close family because of them and the way they had a hand in helping to raise us and showing us right from wrong. When they started out as a

I loved going to see my grandparents because everything was just so different from where I lived, and they will always be some of my favorite people to see. I would always stay in the same little guest bedroom that they had and my grandma would always try and set up the tv for me in their every time. My grandparents liked birds, they even have a clock in their kitchen that has a different bird for every hour. I never really found birds interesting but when I would sit at their kitchen table and look out the big window that overlooked part of their yard, suddenly I was interested just like them. I would watch the hummingbirds come up to the window and drink the juice that my grandma put in a feeder for them, or use a pair of my

After reading this short description of my grandmother, she probably sounds like a very sweet old lady.

Some of the many memories I carry with me every day of my grandmother are the holidays when we used to get together. I remember Thanksgiving and Easter most of all. On Thanksgiving the entire family would come together for dinner and then we would all stay at her house for the night. I remember this so well because we would wake up the next morning to the smell of breakfast and all the ladies would be gone shopping to the "After Thanksgiving Sale".

Of course you always hear people talking about how great their grandmother or grandfather are, I too feel the same way about my grandmother. I see her as more than my grandmother, she’s a role mole, my best friend and also like a sister when I need her. She’s always been a loving and caring person. Not for only her friends and family, but also strangers. People she has never met a day in her life she would be willing to go give her last too. You don’t find to many people like her too often.