I knew my Grandma Pauline mostly through her letters.

she was an avid letter writer. hand written. she corresponded with everyone. she wrote chatty letters. what they'd done, what they'd ate, who stopped by, whose birthday it was, family news. usually there was a reference to someone who died and how many years it had been since they died and how old they would be now. she'd lost a lot of loved ones. her parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, her own son.

she flew to Missouri a few times to visit. I remember a picture of us by the back porch, Grandma is wearing shorts and has rollers in her hair. she took us on long walks. we'd pick flowers, she'd sing us songs she sung to our dad and his sisters when they were kids. she told stories. she had jokes. puns, really. she didn't curse. she would send us packages for Christmas, bags of those big round mints. the huge peppermint sticks. tangerines from the tree in their backyard in San Jose. little things she'd picked up at garage sales. for our birthdays, we got our own box. just stuff she thought we'd like. she sent these boxes to Koren, as well.

when I was pregnant with Koren, Grandma Pauline made me a ton of flannel diapers, all hemmed, and mailed them to me. she was here to visit not long before Koren was born. I used those diapers for Koren and KJ and even had a few left for burp rags for Katie. Grandma died when KJ was a baby. she never officially met him, but I had borrowed a camcorder and made videos and sent to them.

Aunt Mary has told me many stories about her mom. she remembers Grandma & Aunt Betty drooping their hair over one eye like a movie star...Veronica Lake, maybe? how she made these elaborate western shirts for Dad when he was young. the day dad came home on the bus with a bunch of boys for his 'birthday party' that no one knew anything about. so Grandma threw together a supper and a cake and they had a party, like it was planned all along. how when Great Grandpa Johnny was in the cancer hospital again, they had called family in, and Grandma was holding cloth diapers out the window to dry as they drove.

Pauline Axsom taken at carnival at Leon, IA July 5 1948. wasn't she beautiful? she had 3 kids at this time...