Where I've been.

I had a trip scheduled for the beginning of next month. As a family we were going to go down and visit with my Grandmother in Zephyrhills, Florida. My mother got a phone call a little over a week ago that she wasn't feeling well and wanted someone to come down as soon as possible. My mother jumped on the first flight out. My mom hadn't been down there with her for twelve hours yet before my grandma passed away.


Three Generations

It came as a bit of a shock. My poor mother was down there again dealing with this alone, when she had done the very same, that time alongside my grandmother, a few years ago as she watched my grandpa take his last breath. 
So we wanted to get down to her as quickly as we could. We didn't want her to be alone and thankfully my aunt got there quicker than we could. We all piled into my parents' minivan and drove the 1200 some miles straight through the night.
Once we got there funeral arrangements needed to be made, other forms of paperwork filed and then there was the matter of cleaning out the house and divvying her belongings. It was a hard, long, taxing week. I'm still not sure if I've actually digested and dealt with the loss yet. I've been too exhausted and busy. I'm still too busy and too exhausted...
I generally turn to books when something shakes me like this. I am an escapist at heart and Grandparents are a special thing. I began trying to recall the best books I'd ever read where the author shone a light on that particularly special bond between grandparent and grandchild.
For some reason only two came to mind.

Match Me If You Can by Susan Elizabeth Philips - We never, not once meet the grandmother in this book but we know by how the heroine remembers her and cherishes what she's been left that they two of them had that special grandmother-granddaughter connection. 

The other book I thought of was The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde. While reading this book I often believed that maybe if our heroine's grandmother had lived a little longer than Sarah might have turned out differently. There is no arguing the soft spot Sarah had for her grandmother and how important the woman was to her.

I'm sure there are more - possibly better examples that hightlight the wonderfulness of grandparents in our lives. So please share them with me in the comments below. I'd be so grateful to hear of them.