Saying Goodbye (For Now) to Grandma

Well, for the second night in a row, I am up past midnight blogging. I wanted to write about this past weekend. It was an emotional one for me. On Friday, Rylee and I traveled down to central Florida with my mom, brother, and sister for my grandma Parker's memorial service. She passed away this past Monday, August 16. She was only 19 days shy of her 95th birthday. Her husband, my grandpa Parker, passed away October 28, 2006 when he was 88 years old. They had been married for 69 years when he died. (That is incredible to me! I pray Jordan and I are blessed with 69 - if not more - years together!) Anyway, the memorial service for Grandma was simple and sweet - just a nice little celebration of her life here on earth, and celebrating the fact that she has now joined my grandpa in resting peacefully with Jesus. In a lot of ways, I still don't think it has really "hit" me that she's gone. Her health had been rapidly declining for several weeks, so I knew the end was drawing near for her, but it was still very hard to get the news that she had passed. I was extremely close to both my grandma and my grandpa. I was their only granddaughter out of five grandchildren, so I had an extra-special bond with them. They both invested so much time and love in my life. Grandma, a retired school teacher, taught me how to read and write before I even started kindergarten. My grandpa always called me "Sweetie Pie" or "Lola", and he used to say, "What Lola wants, Lola gets!" He would always tell me I was his favorite granddaughter. They were both just such wonderful, beautiful people, and I couldn't have asked for better grandparents. I am so thankful that God gave me 16 years with my grandpa, and 20 years with my grandma. I miss them both very much (I'm crying as I type this), but it is so comforting to know that this separation from them is only temporary. I will see them again someday - in Heaven! Oh, what a wonderful homecoming that will be!

My grandma, Jan Parker (September 4, 1915 - August 16, 2010):

We took some of the floral arrangements from my grandma's memorial service to the cemetery to put next to my grandpa and grandma's graves. The center arrangement is from my family and me.

P.S. My sweet baby girl is now 10 weeks old. That just doesn't seem possible to me. Time is going by SO fast! Rylee was my grandma's only great-grandchild. Unfortunately, my grandma never got to meet her (neither did my grandpa, of course), but thankfully she did at least get to see some pictures of her before she passed.