Thursday, July 5, 2012

Last year on this day our dear Granny went home to be with the Lord. I know that I mostly talk about my Grandparents on my mom's side, but we were with them more than my Granny Douglas. We did not love Granny less, it was just different. Granny was an old country women who had a bit of a rough life. She was forced to marry my grandpa by her parents and she was quite vocal that she had been in love with someone else. Her and grandpa lived on 160 acres of farmland that had been in my grandpa's family. At this farm, she raised 7 boys and 1 girl (who happened to be the baby). My grandpa was a WWII veteran and had been wounded on the banks of Normandy. He died when I was in 2nd grade and truthfully I do not have many memories of him. The ones I do have of him are not really pleasant. We would go to MO twice a year to see Granny, at Thanksgiving/Christmas and July 4th. Granny and one of my uncles would make the trip to our house every October around her birthday. Out of the 8 kids my dad is the only one that moved away from MO. I think the best word to describe Granny was eccentric. Her house was packed full of couches and chairs for people to sit down. She wore a Michael Jackson shirt that said "Beat It!" on the front when she went to milk the cows or get the eggs from the chickens. She loved her Jersey Cows and we would pile in the back of the pickup truck and go see the cows. She did not have any teeth and one time us kids got in an argument with her because we asked her to wear her teeth to someone's graduation. Her response, "I am a grown women. I will wear my teeth when I want to wear my teeth." That was the end of that discussion. Her house was not exactly the cleanest and as she got older we made up any excuse so we would not have to eat there. I do remember her making yummy homemade doughnuts and she used to make the best biscuits and gravy. Every holiday the Douglas Clan would cram into her house and we would make sure someone was standing at the table warning people which dish Granny made:) unfortunately for us we had to stay there so we were forced to eat all her leftovers! There were always dirt dobbers or wasps in the back room and to this day I cannot hear a box fan without thinking of my Granny. I also get tickled when I think about her telephone. She had a phone in her bedroom that was connected with someone else's line, a party line it was called. We would try to sneak and listen to the neighbor's conversations.  We usually got to her house late at night and I always thought it was so funny to see cows laying up by the house. We would have to walk around them to get in the house. She would have the 100-year-old feather bed out for us on the tile floor ready for us to go to bed. As teenagers we would get so mad because we did not want to sleep on that ragged thing, but I know it was her way of welcoming us back. Granny never met a stranger. She lived in the boonies and we always teased that she would let anybody in the house. One of the funniest stories is the time that Granny heard a helicopter outside her house. She went outside and a bunch of SWAT trucks were in the driveway guns drawn!! There was a marijuana plant spotted in her garden!!! They ended up busting some people up the road for the plants. I guess the wind had blown a seed right into her garden. Granny was a hoot and although she was so different from our other grandparents, she loved us. Her house was plastered with pictures of her kids and grandkids. She would tell us stories of years gone by and would do this laugh that was unique to only her. The little FWB church was actually on part of her land and we would walk to the church and she would kneel with us and pray for us. I hate to say that as an adult I did not see Granny much. I saw her in 2005 when we went down for the 4th of July. Samuel had just come home the month before and so we took him to see her. Five years went by before I saw her again. December 2010 we all went down for a few days because she was not doing so well. She was going to have to be placed in a nursing home. She did not know who I was. Last year the kids and I made the trip with my parents on the 4th of July to see her and the rest of the family. We had our picnic at the park right behind the nursing home. We had planned a big celebration of life party for her that afternoon. My cousin went to get her dressed but she was running a fever and not doing well. By the morning of July 5th she had the death rattle. I had never heard such a terrible sound in all my life. The doctor said that she had a few days at the most left. We were able to tell her good-bye. We all returned home not knowing how much time she had left. She passed away that evening. There was a lot of stuff we complained about when we were at her house as kids, but all those experiences made us who we are today. Thanks Granny for making our life so interesting!

A few days before she died.



A view from outside the church. You can see her house up on the hill.



The old farmhouse.



Well, we had a pretty eventful day. Remember me saying things are probably going to get worse? On Sunday our Envoy started making a funny noise. We took it in this morning and it is the air compressor. This $800 part is something that has to be fixed to run. We left the truck at the mechanic and we leave in my van with no air conditioner on the incredibly hot day. We get down the road and Jeremy notices that my van in over heating! We take the van to the mechanic and Jeremy's parents bring us a car to use until the Envoy gets fixed. The van needs a new fan, but we are not sure if we are going to fix it. We had already decided that we were not taking the van to Chicago. I had to go to Wal-Mart for a few things and then we got the kids some lunch because it was getting so late. Jeremy asked Sam what he wanted to drink and Sam says, "Dad, just give me water so I can save you some money." SWEETEST BOY EVER!!!!!

Yesterday we finally got some rain. We do not usually let the kids do this, but they wanted to stand in the rain for a few minutes. Hey, it's Summer:)