Because she and my grandfather have lived in Minnesota and Nevada while I have lived in Michigan and Alaska, I did not get to seem them as often as my relatives in Chicago. Still, while growing up, our trips to Minnesota were the ones that I most looked forward to. Until about when I was in high school, we visited about four times a year: Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and a summer stop (usually as part of another trip).
Most of my memories of my grandmother include my grandfather as well since we rarely saw the two of them apart during our visits. I do have a few favorite memories:
Grandma making popcorn on the stove. While many of my memories of my grandmother include her making some sort of amazing food, the picture that keeps coming back to my mind is of her making large kettles of popcorn that tasted better than any other popcorn that I have had (and I love almost any kind of popcorn).
Grandma and Grandpa meeting me, Janelle and our baby daughters in Reno during one of our long layovers on our way from Alaska to Michigan. Despite the long drive from Las Vegas, they came to keep us company (and have dinner with us, despite how ill the girls were at the time) while we waited for our connecting flight during one of our Christmas breaks.
The first phone call when I realized how much Alzheimer's had affected her. While it's a bittersweet memory, it was a call where we were telling her that we were going to visit (again, around Christmas), but because of her short-term memory loss, she kept forgetting. This made it so we got to tell her the good news of our visit several times and each time she reacted with such joy at the nice "surprise."
Grandma's love for Old Country Buffet. Again, it's a little sad as well, but as her memory was starting to go, she would forget about OCB until we would take her there and she would get so excited, like a person coming across a buried treasure.
More than once, she and Grandpa visited Jackson to watch me or one of my siblings in our musicals, concerts, and even a dance recital. They were always quite supportive of our singing and other stage performances.
One of my favorite memories (and I think this was in the old Holiday Inn in Jackson, but I'm not certain) was Grandma (and Grandpa) teaching Janelle and me how to play 500. We played that game a number of times (with aunts and uncles as well) over the course of a couple of nights, spending the time talking about a number of topics.
My biggest regret is that, due to my own actions, I never got the chance to spend the summer with them when I was fourteen. I was supposed to be an apprentice doughnut shop baker for a summer, but it ended up not working out.
I know that my grandmother is now watching over me and my family, patiently waiting for us to join her. I also know that she is livening up the streets of heaven and getting everything in order as she was so good at doing. Even knowing this, I still miss her and hope she knows that I love her.