A return home....11/12/13

Gram chose her day....a pretty cool one, so Juanita informed me.  I hadn't even thought of the date of today until Juan told me that Gram chose such a cool date to leave this earth life and return home.
11/12/13
Pretty cool.....just like my Gram.
Sarah Maria Jones Gunnell left all earthly pain behind this morning.  She was 95.  She lived a long, happy, fulfilling life.  And now she is reunited with her husband :).  What a happy day for her.
She was my mom's mom, and my last living Gram.

A few years ago Gram came to my house and stayed with me for a week.  In that week she taught me to can all kinds of food, and even offered to kill and pluck a chicken for me for dinner :).  Nothing was above Gram.  My kids sat around her in the evenings and asked her all kinds of questions about how life was for her growing up. I learned a lot about Gram during that week, and I learned even more from her.  Hard work is what keeps us happy and keeps us going.

Shortly after that trip to my home Gram started falling a lot.  We were all worried about her, especially since she lived in a town house with no bedrooms on the main floor.  After one really bad fall she was moved to a care center.  Matt and I stopped by to visit with her one day while she was getting help from her daughters, my Aunts, moving the last of her things out of her home.  They were so happy to tell me that Gram was going to me all taken care of now.  She wouldn't have to clean or cook anything ever again.  I looked at my Gram, who seemed so much smaller to me than she ever had before, and thought, "Oh no.  That takes everything from her.  It takes her reason for living away.  It makes her feel like life isn't worth living anymore."  Now, don't get me wrong.  I know that she needed to move and get that kind of help.  But with the kind of women my Gram was, a change like that would just make her feel like a burden to everyone, her children especially. It just wasn't a happy time.  She made the most of it.  But I really hated visiting her in that home, although it was a great place and the people there were so good to her.  I loved visiting with her, but she never really was the same again. She was always more tired.  Always had a longing look in her eyes.

I remember when I lived in Idaho Gram moved back to Idaho.  The town she always loved....Chesterfield.  Matt and I took the boys to see her a few times as it was only 90 min. from our home.  I can still see her in that little home, down on her hands and knees chasing my boys around the corners.  She had a smile on her face that shined clear through her eyes.  She told us story after story about her happy life growing up there.  She was alive and full of happy memories of life.  She didn't get to stay long...just over a year if I remember right.

She will be buried there, next to her hubby.
It will be such a sweet reunion.
She will finally be able to return to where her heart never really left.
And she endured.....she made it!

I love you Gram!!!!
Keep an eye on all of us here on earth and give us a kick anytime we start doing anything wrong :)