Blessed

What can I say except that I have been blessed.  I have been very fortunate to have had one very special lady for the thirty-eight years of my life until five days ago.  I was even more fortunate to have had my Grandpa K until I was in my early twenties and my Grandpa & Grandma Lynch until my early thirties.  There are people (many of whom I've talked to this week) who either never knew a grandparent or two or four, or only had them for a short time.  I know I have been blessed.

Having said that, it is still going to be very strange to not have Grandma Great around.  When I was debating whether to take the job here at the courthouse, one of the factors I considered was being close to the nursing home.  On a moment's notice, in most scenarios, I could be at the nursing home within minutes if needed.  I think that only occurred once, but I was able to go and go quickly.  

The Madolyn's

Almost every day of the workweek, I would spend half of my lunch hour at the nursing home...visiting, fixing her hair, washing her glasses, straightening pictures, retrieving her shopping list, filling the candy jar, stocking her supplies, delivering cheese and cherry tomatoes, gathering laundry, hanging laundry, hearing the latest nursing home gossip, getting her up to date on Martinsville news, delivering newspapers, calming nerves, etc.

My lunch hours will be very weird.

I remember when she first went into the nursing home how hard it was not to be able to go to her house and just visit.  On many Sunday evenings when Jay would go to work, the kids and I would head to Grandma's house to make the evening go faster.  On the way home from town on slow summer days, my car knew the way to her house for a little visit and maybe something good to eat.  During farm season, impromptu lunches were common.  The coffee was on every day at 3:00 p.m. (for my dad).  If my kids didn't want to go run errands, I could leave them at Grandma Great's for a while.  She loved that.

Eventually, it got easier to drive on past her lane.  After a while, my car didn't want to pull me down the Angling Road on my way home from town.  But I could still visit her.  My kids could still hang out with her at the nursing home during the 4-H fair or if I was at a doctor's appointment or running to Wal-Mart.  She was still nearby.

And now she is gone.

In retrospect, I'm glad that this has gone in phases.  It may have been too much to handle all at once.  And as I've said repeatedly this week, I'm fine as long as I don't talk about it. 

But we all know that Grandma and I like to talk.

In time, I will get used to the boring lunch hours.  One thing is for sure, I have been blessed.