Goodbye Grandma

My grandma died yesterday at 1 AM.

Here's the hard part about being a midwife. The funeral is Saturday at 11 AM in a state 900 miles away from me. I have a client due with her sixth baby who has all her babies at 38 weeks. She is 38 weeks on Monday. She's been calling with crampy stuff for a few days, so it's not gonna be long. So, I need to be gone as little time as possible. I wish I had a partner or something.

I understand having an obligation to this mother who is due, but this is my grandma. PreacherMan had enough frequent flier miles for me to get a ticket. I will be gone for 36 hours, but at least I will have enough time to attend one of visitations. PreacherMan is driving the kids up there all by himself on Friday, attending the funeral on Saturday and driving back home on Sunday. What a man.

Back to my grandma. When I was a kid, we would stay with my grandma and grandpa when my folks went out of town. Because my dad was a surgeon, he had conferences frequently. My grandma had an 11x13" tupperware box filled with fun little candies that we always got to choose from. At Christmas, my grandma would give us each "junk boxes". It was a large box (like hiking boots come in) with all little presents individually wrapped. It would take at least 1/2 hour to unwrap it all. It might be pencils with our names on it; a pound of our favorite bulk candy; a wind up toy; little knick-knacks from their trips all over the country and the world. It was always filled with such fun things. It was the best part of Christmas.

When I was pregnant with the babies, my grandma always loved to rub on my belly and feel the babies move. She always wanted to babysit when my parents were too busy and she would hold the babies while they slept and never put them down. She was dutch through and through and I get my blue, blue eyes from her. Her eyes were like your favorite pair of faded jeans. Her hair was black as night and didn't start turning gray until she was in her 70's. She and my grandpa met when he and some friends were "cruising" down the main street of the town I grew up in. My grandma was wearing a red polka dot dress and was walking with some friends. My grandpa saw her and elbowed his friends and said, "That's the girl I'm gonna marry." He jumped out of the car, they met and started dating and were married for 60 years before he died.

I know my grandpa lives on through me. I have 1 child with his dark skin, 2 with his black hair, and 3 that have green eyes that must have come from his brown. And I know my grandma lives on through me. I have two children with eyes so blue, they almost hurt to look at. We call them "Disney eyes". But really, they are Grandma Eyes.

Here is Grandma with my handsome boys this last summer: