Saying Good-bye

We lost J.C.'s grandmother this week.

It has been a tough week.

Both of my grandfathers died before I was born. I lost my grandmothers when I was in high school and college. When I came into J.C.'s family, in my mind, I think I adopted his grandparents as my own. "Granddaddy" became the grandfather I never had, and "Grandmother" filled that role in my life.

The two of them were married for seventy years. I loved watching them together. You could tell their love was still going strong even after so many years. I always loved the way her name, "Mary Elizabeth" was always pronounced as one word, "Merlizbeth" by her husband.

I can imagine that if you had asked her how they kept the spark alive for so many years, one of her answers would have been to keep a sense of humor. She certainly had one. She would give people a hard time or make funny observations, always with a smile on her face and just a hint of mischief in her eye. She was a wonderfully sweet lady, but had a little spunk inside as well. She was deeply devoted to her husband but had such an independent streak too. Every Christmas or birthday, each of us would receive a card with money inside - cash from Granddaddy and a check from Grandmother. Grandaddy has never been a fan of banks, so you knew the cash came from him. I was never sure whether or not he knew that she included the check too.

Her obituary today in the paper said that she was well known for her chocolate pies. She was always ruler of the kitchen on holidays. If she told you to stir, you said "Yes, m'am" and started stirring. If you were charged with carving the turkey, you better know how to do it. Along with her chocolate pies, everyone loved her chicken salad, her chicken slicks, pecan pies and sweet potato pies. I hope one day, when I'm a grandmother, my grandchildren will fondly remember my specialties in the kitchen as well. For my own grandmothers, some of my strongest memories of them are food related - Moonie for her cherry pies and cherry jam, and Gonga for her broccoli cheese casserole, slaw, and chocolate cake. One of JC's favorite parts of the holidays has always been his grandmother's sweet potato pie.