Spoiled

Last week, as I was chastising my mother for letting my children have whatever it is they want (like pepsi and chips for breakfast), she reminded again about how our grandparents spoiled us.

I loved all of my grandparents.  Both of my grandma's were great cooks.  You could always count on Grandma Funky (yes that is what we called her) to have a big pot of stew like concoction on the stove.   I loved her boiled dinner.  Great Grandma Aney made these fabulous chocolate cookies, that we can not find the recipe for anywhere.  I have tried several recipes but haven't found it yet.  

I'll say it again, I loved them all, but I miss Grandma Eleanor the most.  I don't know why, I just do.  Grandma Funky passed away when I was 18, Grandma Eleanor passed away when I was in my 30's.  Maybe it takes until you're an adult to really know what it means to have a grandparent around.

I have a picture of her from her 89th birthday on my refrigerator. Occasionally I will walk by and just give her a little kiss.  She died not long after her birthday.   She was a tiny woman with a heart of gold.  I am getting choked up just thinking about her and she has been gone more than 10 years.  My mom reminded me, how she always made me rice pudding.  Every time I asked. She never said no.  They lived just 15 miles from us and we often spent the weekend there or a week in the summer.  Every morning she would make me oatmeal, with toasted homemade bread, for breakfast, .   She would let me eat it in the tv room, sitting in grandpa's recliner.  There were always cookies in the freezer and caramels and butter scotches in candy dish.  When my grandfather was still alive, we would have dinner, watch Lawrence Welk and then go to church on Saturday night.  I don't remember staying there a whole lot after my grandfather died.  I don't know why. 

A few years ago, I bought a bottle of Jergen's lotion and took it to work. The first time I used it, tears came to my eyes and I couldn't figure out why.  Later on that day I realized what it was.  It was Jergen's Cherry Almond and it smelled like my grandma.  There was always a bottle on the shelf in her bathroom, along with a container of Coty face powder .  I can still see every thing in her pink bathroom.   

When she died, my grandfather had died many years before, all of her children and grandchildren split up their belongings.  We had a wonderful time going through their things.  I took the metal bed that had been in the upstairs bedroom/attic.  There were two of them and my cousin Kathy and I used to have the best time when we got to stay at grandma's together.  I can't remember who took the other one.

Sometimes I just miss her so much.  Here's to you Eleanor.