I loved my Grandma Grace. she could do no wrong.

she worked back when moms traditionally stayed home. but she had to work. she only worked when her youngest child started school, and she only worked while they were at school. her and Grandpa only had 1 vehicle for years. they both worked in town. sometimes she'd walk uptown to the Mattingly's store. once, my mom was young. like 5 or so. mom walked uptown by herself and put her name in the drawing for the giant bride doll at the Mattingly's store. she was ineligible as an employee's child, but she won. and they gave it to her. Grandma had to wear dresses and skirts to work for years, that was the dress code. up on ladders stocking shelves, etc.

Mattingly's turned into Matco's and she was out at Eastgate Shopping Center. I remember visiting her at work, and she was always crawling up or down a ladder stocking something. she would give us kids elaborate chocolate easter eggs with sugary decorations , hollow inside, personalized with our names. we had all holidays at Grandma & Grandpa's...the 4th. Easter. Thanksgiving. Christmas.

Grandma had a huge beautiful flower bed bedside the house and the big white cellar door. I loved that cellar. there was a bed down there, all made up. she told me who the bed belonged to. I don't remember. and there was the coolest root cellar down there.

Matco's did a bib overalls promotion, and all the employees had their pic taken in their denim bibs. Grandma rolled hers up to her knees and wore them mushroom hunting. she was adorable. she used to have Mildred and Claudia over and they'd do their hair. they'd roll it up then sit under their bonnet dryers. and they'd have their friends over to play cards and games.

Grandma took care of Grandpa at the end, kept him home like he requested, and she said that after he died, he never left the house. she talked to him. he gave her advice. got onto her for moving the bed. When Grandma went to the nursing home, her house went on the market. someone else lives there now. I hope Grandpa is ok with that. I wish Grandma could've died there, too, but nothing saying she couldn't of found her way back from Sunnyview to that little house she loved with all her heart.

Grandma baked and cooked. she sewed and crocheted. she quilted. she made clothing. she did puzzles. she didn't seem to know how to just sit and do nothing. she read until her eyes got too bad. she had that huge garden and she canned. I especially remember the horticulture beans. and her chili sauce. Grandpa built a huge cabinet that covered one entire wall of the side porch, and that was where she stored her butter bowls and lids. she would send you out to the cabinet to get butter bowls and lids after every family dinner, and you took home your weight in leftovers. she made candy. I loved the buckeyes. and chocolate meringue pie. and apple dumplings. Aunt Kay always brought peanut brittle. and Aunt Chardy & Shelia had million calorie cakes.

I'm pretty sure Grandma helped mom make my dance uniform. the team bought the fabric and patterns and we made them ourselves. she also made the shorts outfit I tried out for majorette team in. (didn't make it. sad day. I longed for a velvet shorts outfit, a tiara, and white tap boots with blue tassels. just not meant to be, I guess. not even with some lessons.) she made the dance hall girl dress I wore in that melodrama. she never used pins to hold the pattern to the fabric. she laid the fabric out on the big dining table mom has now, laid the pattern over top, then laid table knives on pattern to hold it down, and just cut it out.

Grandma collected plates. there were rows of them on her dining room walls. she took them down routinely, washed them, put them back up. they meant so much to her. I took a few from the sale. it made me sad that no one wanted them. the dining room windowsill was lined with Avon car decanters. I have the old radio mom remembers Grandpa buying brand new when she was young. and Katie has their little desk. It is now yellow and the chair has an upholstered cushion.

Grandma would say "on it, on it" while she was talking. she called the couch a "divan" and pizza "pissa". she had this way of just looking at your with those pretty eyes of hers. she knew bullshit. but she wouldn't always call it. she just let you know that she knew.

I'm pretty sure that Grandma & Grandpa were the first ones to arrive at our wedding, right after us. Grandpa took a Polaroid of us before we got dressed in our wedding clothes. Grandpa came to all us grandkids graduations and weddings. he came to birthday parties for both Koren & KJ. but he didn't live long enough to see them graduate or marry or have babies.

Grandma's mom Gilly died when her first great grandchild was on the way. Grandma knew she'd die when her first grandchild was due, as well. but she didn't. She got to watch Koren grow up, graduate, and came to her wedding reception. (they got married in Colorado, then had a reception here.) She got to watch KJ graduate from high school. but she didn't get to meet any great great grandbabies, either. not here on earth, anyway.

my grandkids won't remember my culinary skills. or my spectacularly clean house. I hope they remember how much I loved them. how proud I am of them. and the neighbors chickens and trips to the zoo and dinosaurs and Bunny Foo Foo and Bigfoot.