My Grandma

This June my grandma, Dorothy Maxine Christmas, passed away.  These pictures are from the last time we had visited her just a year ago.  She lived in Washington so we didn't get to see her all the time.  She passed away peacefully.  She lived alone but had friends who checked on her and kept track of her.  When they hadn't seen her lately they called her landlord to check on her and that's when she was found in her chair passed away.  My mom was called by the police to inform her and she called me to tell me.  It was a sad day.

Totem restaurant that we ate at often

Since my mom is the only family left she needed to go and take care of all her things.  My brother Jon and I went up to Washington with my parents to help pack the apartment.  While there we visited some of the places that we went to all the time with Grandma.

Bowling alley she bowled at and was on a league until she passed

When we were younger and we went to the bowling alley with my grandma she'd give us some money to go play in the arcade, I had to take some pictures of it.  We also ate at the bowling alley and bowled there sometimes.  My grandma loved showing off her grandchildren and great grandchildren to all her friends and people who worked there.

Grandma used to work at K-Mart and we would go there when we were younger to go school clothes shopping.  She would take us to all her friends there and show us off.  I'd always get the comment that I look just like my mom a little mini Peggy.  My oldest brother Cliff came down to help us pack up and my grandma's things and load the truck.  We were also able to view her body at the funeral home before she was cremated which was her request.  That certainly was a different experience for me.  I've been to viewings before, but this was the first one where I really knew the person, she definitely didn't look like herself.  Our spirits really are apart of us and without her spirit there it just wasn't her.  It will be a happy day when we are able to do her temple work.

Her funeral was in Howard, Kansas.  yes I made two trips to Kansas this year.  She was buried with her husband and daughter.  There was a small informal memorial at the cemetery I was able to play my flute and share some memories of her and I heard stories that I had never heard before about her.  Eric came with us this time and his mom also came with us and we extended out trip to visit Eric's brother and family in Missouri and also some church sites.  My parents and Rachel drove down there and they were truly watched over because right after the memorial we had a lunch with everyone who came and then we headed to our next destination and my parents went to visit one of my grandma's brothers who was unable to come and while driving there a semi hit them and ran them off the road in a construction zone.  The car was smashed pretty good, the driver side door was smashed in and unable to open from the inside.  The car thankfully was still driveable, but a lot of duct tape was used to hold things together and they weren't able to use the driver door.  My mom was driving and said that they should have died in that accident, but no one was seriously injured.  Rachel and my mom did get whiplash and Rachel's back is hurting her a lot, but they barely missed smashing into a street sign and all the cones that were everywhere.  The semi was in the wrong and wasn't watching where he was going.  I'm truly grateful everyone was okay.  The weird thing is my mom told me that after her sister's funeral, which was at the same cemetery, her parents and her were in a car accident.