Helen Virginia

Today would have been my Grandmom's 80th birthday. She passed away on January 4, 2009, and I miss her everyday. I miss the way she used to call us "angels" and how she was always ready to shop. I miss how she used to call everyday and how she used to ask where we were eating for lunch, even at 9am. I miss how she used to make enough food for an army anytime the family came over to eat, and how she used to yell "yoohoo!" I miss how she made the holidays so special, and I miss apple picking. I miss her perfume (which I still go smell every time we go in a department store) and her laugh. I miss how she used to bring us little treats anytime she went to the store, and her QVC addiction. 

I miss how, even after she had a massive stroke, she had the strength to live for 4 more years even though the doctors thought she wouldn't make it through the night. They said she might never talk again, but she also amazed the speech pathologists because her speech almost came back completely. I miss how every week when we visited her in the nursing home after the stroke (we wished she didn't have to live there, but she needed extensive therapy and dialysis every day, and was paralyzed from the waist down), her face would light up and she'd say "Hey Hon" (she was from Baltimore hehe) and she would be so entertaining and happy to see us. I miss how the nurses would tell us what a joy she was to have as a patient, and how sweet of a person she was. But mostly, I miss hugging her and hearing her voice and seeing her. 

Happy Birthday Grandmom, we love you and miss you everyday and know you are celebrating today in Heaven with taco bell and pumpkin marshmallow peeps!

We thought of you with love today,

but that is nothing new.

We thought about you yesterday

and days before that too.

We think of you in silence,

we often speak your name.

All we have are memories

and your picture in a frame.

Your memory is our keepsake

with which we'll never park

God has you in His keeping,

we have you in our hearts.