The Grandmother

You may or may not have noticed that we were absent last week. That's because the thing we'd been dreading finally happened.....Tanner's Grandmother passed away.

 

This had been looming over our family for quite some time. She found out that she had aggressive pancreatic cancer back in the spring. That's why it was so important for us all to celebrate Easter & Grandmother's birthday in TN. Over the past several weeks, she'd really taken a turn for the worst, and pretty much the entire month of August was an awful waiting game. It finally ended peacefully for her last Saturday.

 

We found out that she had passed away on Saturday night at about 10pm, but had to wait until Sunday afternoon for the funeral plans to be confirmed. Once we knew, we kicked it into gear to leave by 5pm that same night. Talk about packing for 5 people fast! We made it to Birmingham that night, and continued the trip the following day. The visitation was held that night, and the funeral was Tuesday at 2pm. By the time that was over, it was too late for us to head home, so we left mid-morning Wednesday and finally arrived back home at around 11pm that night.

 

It was a stressful trip, but honestly, we were mostly just relieved that she was no longer suffering. It felt like we'd grieved for so long before she actually died, that there was a sense of comfort once she was gone, because we know exactly where she is now.

 

We are so going to miss The Grandmother, which is the fitting name our sister-in-law gave her many years ago. She was the true matriarch of our family and the essence of a true Southern lady. We're going to miss her calling and giving us the updates on all our other family members, the family Christmases that couldn't be topped, and her food...especially the macaroni & cheese. (And if she were here to read this, she'd say "I only ever make that when you & Ben are here!" Lucky me!)

 

Here are a few of the last photos of her, taken at Easter. We are so thankful that we had so much time with her, and that all of our children got to meet their GiGi. There's definitely no replacing her!