Grandma Fisher... I miss her so much!

My walk down memory lane comes early this week. Today marks the 8th anniversary of my Grandma Fisher's death. I can't even express how much I miss her. After my parents married, they purchased a single wide mobile home and parked it in the side yard at my grandparents house, our front door opened up to the lilac bushes that Grandma loved so much, and that I love and remember her by. As a baby I spent a lot of time with Grandma Fisher. Whenever Mom and Dad went out, I stayed with Grandpa and Grandma, or when mom was busy and I was being a pain, she would hand me off to Granny. Grandma kept all of us kids, anytime our parents needed a sitter - she never complained about keeping her grandkids - to her it was a joy. I honestly don't really know how many years we lived out there, but I know that as a toddler and a very young girl I loved living there. I remember catching fire flies and playing with kitties, helping Grandma pick blackberries or veggies from the garden. When we picked blackberries we would turn over a bucket or a coffee can and sit on it, I thought that was pretty neat. I liked to eat the berries while we were picking! I also thought it was great when she let me pump the water to quench the garden. When I was a little older she took me on walks down the chalk road and we would pick mulberries and bring them home, then I would help wash them and she would bake a pie. I always loved that when there was crust left over she would roll it out and butter it then sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar. Oh my goodness... they were so yummy!! Grandma also took me and my cousins fishing down at the creek and we fished with bamboo poles. I loved spending time with Grandma. She was the best cook... and she passed a lot of her recipes and cooking methods down to me directly and also through my mom - who taught me even more. Gotta love that German food. MMM HMM ... can you say dumplings?!

This is me as a little bug... about 4 years old and sitting on Grandma's lap - you can tell from her smile how please she was with herself for growing a 15 pound canteloup. :)

I almost cropped myself out of this photo because I look so creepy... but I love Grandma's smile in this picture. This is the smile I saw every time she greeted me when I visited her out at the farm, or when she came around the corner from the kitchen. That's how I remember her. She was such a loving, beautiful person. Always so humble, she was just genuinely kind and good. She was grateful for everything anyone did for her and for what she had. She appreciated the simple things in life, especially her family. It didn't take much to make her happy - she was always content. Goodness I adored that woman. Side note: Don'tchya love Grandpa's little smirk and his farmer overalls? :)

This photo is of Grandma admiring her first great grandbaby, Ciara. She looks so proud. I can just hear her voice, "Oh Jame, she's cuuuute." :) She was the best Grandma ever... if you look up the word "Grandmother" in the dictionary, it would say "see also - Anna Mary Fisher". She was the epitomy of Granny. She would take her grandbabies in at a moment's notice. I still remember being hauled to the farm at what seemed like the middle of the night in my little flowered night gown because Mom was goin' to the hospital to deliver my brother. I never ever minded being babysat by Grandma. She always had some kind of remedy for your sickness too. If I said I had a tummy ache, she would have me lay down on the couch, then she would put a little white candle on a penny and set it on my belly button - then light it and place a juice glass over it. This formed a suction and always seemed to make tummies feel better somehow. I'm guessing that the cure was possibly psychological? :)

This was taken of my precious gramps and granny at their 60th wedding anniversary. Who would have thought that only a few short years later we would have to say goodbye? The strangest thing is that her death was ultimately caused by complications from a knee surgery. The knee became infected and a surgery was done to remove the infection. She came out of that surgery with a bowel obstruction. Doctors thought that she was too weak to endure another surgery to remove the obstruction, but it had to be done. Then it happened, the organs began to fail. It was just the saddest thing ever. She was in the hospital for less than 2 weeks before her family witnessed her last breath. That was definitely one of the hardest things I've ever experienced, but after watching her suffer for days, I was grateful that the Lord spared her. Ciara was upset that I wouldn't let her go into the ICU room to see Grandma before she passed away, but I didn't want the kids to remember her the way she was in that hospital room with all the tubes and equipment. It was heartbreaking to see. I choose to remember that smile I talked about earlier... the smile I saw when Grandma came around the corner from the kitchen with a dish towel in her hand and greeted me with a hug. She was always so warm and welcoming - always happy to see her family that meant so much to her. I love to remember how she would laugh at Luke when he was being goofy, how she exclaimed that "the potatoes were a little undercooked" when she ate chinese food for the first time and tasted waterchestnuts. But most of all I love to remember how she loved on me and my brother and cousins, and then later... my own babies. She is everything a Grandma should be and I'm grateful that I had her in my life for 30 years to model how to be a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother.

I love you Granny... and I can't wait to see you again one day when we meet in heaven! :)