A Tribute To Grandma

I know it has been a while since I last blogged. I didn't want to post anything until I made this entry. February 6, 2008 Grandma left this world to be with her heavenly father. As many of you know grandma was a fighter. One of her first battles was in 94' when she developed multiple blood clots in her lungs. Doctors did experimental surgery and later wrote about her in medical books. A few years later she would battle ovarian cancer, skin cancer and breast cancer with the result of a mastectomy. Through all of this she never complained, NEVER. Grandma also developed diabetes and kidney failure leading to the result of calciphylaxis. Calciphylaxis is a syndrome of vascular calcification and skin necrosis. It is a very painful disease and not well known. This just wasn't a battle Grandma could win.

Grandma -She is an encouraging word and a tender touch. She is full of proud smiles. She is the one person in the world who loves you with all her heart, who remembers the child you were and cherishes the person you've become. ~Barbara Cage~ This was my grandma. Not everyone has the privilege of having a grandparent like I had. As a kid every Friday night I would pack my "going to grandmas" suite case and anticipate the spaghetti dinner and biscuit and gravy breakfast ahead of me. We would watch the Lawrence Whelk show while grandma would roll our hair for us.

Their truly are so many things I could say about Grandma but the things that I remember most are how she would laugh, sing in church and lay on the floor for hours looking at her pictures.

Family was so important to her. As a kid Grandma and Grandpa would take us to visit family. She wanted us to know our family. She loved being a grandma but she loved her great-grand kids like nothing you could imagine.

What a blessing to have had such a wonderful person in my life! I hope that I can only be an example of what is means to love God and others the way she did.

This was a message someone had left on the courier guest book. It was so touching I wanted to share with everyone."I grew up next door to the Grahams on Harding Ave. On Sundays, I would go to church with LaQuita and Benita, Southside Church of the Nazarene. My favorite memory of that time is when she would take me to Pattersons Bakery on Park Blvd. and let me choose any donut I wanted. Then we would go back to her house and she would let me have coffee with my donut. I felt so grown up, drinking that coffee! Then off to church we'd go. I have always gave credit to Mrs Graham for bringing Jesus into my life, and have thought of her often through the years. May She rest in peace, and God Bless her for some of the few good childhood memories I have.My prayers are with you all."

Grandma had such a gentle spirit and will be missed so very much. The sadness is not for the loss of her, but for the loss of my own. I find comfort in Revelation 21:1-4 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away ... I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God ... And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (NIV)