Catching up

My friend Joel posed the question, "how do you eat a whale?". Very slowly. Thus is how i will do my catching up; very slowly.

This is my beautiful grandmother LaVerne Case Cunningham. I really loved her. And looked up to her. And i actually felt like i was like her, in alot of ways. I always hoped that she could be at my wedding someday... but she died on March 27th, 2011.

Though i am really sad she's gone, I am glad she can be with my grandfather again. He died before i was born, so he's been gone for a long time. She really missed him. He died just ten days before his next birthday, and she kept a birthday card for him in a photo album all these years.

After she died, we went through her boxes and found a mountain of keepsakes she had saved for us. For me, she saved a handmade apron she received from a pen pal in south america over fifty years ago. She thought i would like it.

I do.

They also found a journal of hers. She didn't really keep journals, but her nephew gave her one about ten years ago. It was a question/answer journal. This became the biggest treasure of all the things left behind (though i was the only one who thought so). It was quickly passed over, but i grabbed it like it was gold and went home, just so i could spend the night reading it. I cried as i read, because most of these things, i did not know about her. I learned so much from these twenty or so pages.. I only wish there were more. I was asked to speak at her funeral and I shared a few of her entries because I thought it would to be fun to share some of the things i had learned about her life.

Here is one of the entries:

"List one special memory about each of your brothers and sisters"

"This is easy. I only had one sister, Klell. She had a very unusual name. Our Aunt Laurel was reading a novel and the main female character was named Klell. But my dad didnt like it. So he insisted that she have his mother's name also, thus she was named Klell Jeanette.

"When i graduated from Jr High i had a beautiful beige dress (pleated skirt). I only wore it to church. One Sunday i went to get the dress to wear and I couldnt find it. So mom asked Klell if she had seen it. She said she had spilled osmething on it and sent it to the cleaner. She didnt say she had gone wading in Utah Lake and stepped in a hole... The dress was ruined."

It was really fun to read all her entries.

She is the closest person i've had die to me so far. My other grandparents died, and while i loved them dearly, there was something different about Grandma Cunningham.. She made me feel really special. She made all of us feel special. She never forgot a birthday or holiday. There was always a treat from her. When i was first going to college i was super poor. She didn't know, but she'd slip me a twenty dollar bill sometimes. I was always so grateful because it was always the times when i didn't have any money for food. She taught me by example, to do service for people. That makes all the difference. She also taught me how to drive, in the Orem cemetary. She said, "it's ok if you mess up here, cause everyone's already dead!" :) ha.

She took us to BYU football games. I loved that so much. I was always so excited when it was my turn. I'm not sure she ever really knew how much i liked it. I especially liked getting a burnt almond fudge ice cream during half time. She taught me how to make a family favorite called "noodles" which is basically like, thickened chicken noodle soup over mashed potatoes. It's so good.

Man, i really miss her.