Remembering my beautiful Grandma

Because Monday is Memorial Day...and tomorrow, May 29, would have been my Grandma's 93rd birthday...I thought it fitting to post some thoughts and pictures about a beautiful woman whom I love and miss SO MUCH. (Click here to view the pictures from her memorial service.)

My grandparents met and served in the Navy during World War II - my grandma as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Nurses Corp. and my grandpa as a Navy aviator. Their service to our military makes me proud...and makes me thankful to the men and women who serve our country today. What an amazing sacrifice!

A few years ago I had the priviledge of sifting through and scanning years of family slides, starting with my grandparents courtship and ending in the early 80's. It was such a gift to take that trip back in time.

(Maybe this is where my love of photography came from!)

Here is Grandma with my mom when she was a baby.

Here she is dancing with me at my wedding...

There are so many memories between then and now...images captured on film that have yet to be scanned...but it's the pictures I have of my grandma with her beloved great-grandchildren that I treasure the most.

My kids and their cousins knew my grandma as "Grandma Great." They adored her SO MUCH - she made them feel like they were so treasured and completely loved. She kept every note and picture and email and, most important, prayed for them before they were even born. We still talk about my grandma and have many times since her passing on June 14, 2009. My little one prays that she hopes Grandma Great is having a fun time in Heaven...which we know she most definitely is.

My Grandma was always so full of joy and will always be remembered for her infectious laugh. She was a good sport too...like the time when she let us paint her fingernails purple and give her a "Rock On" tattoo...or the time in college when I got my nose pierced and when I went home to visit she came over with a HUGE red clip on earring on her nose. SO FUNNY!!

She celebrated life! Here she is at her birthday party in 2008.

Now I'm not sure my Grandma would approve of me posting these next few pictures of her in her nightgown (sorry Grandma!) but I LOVE them so much because they show how joyful she was even in her final weeks of life. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she would spend eternity with Jesus and took comfort in that fact.

This was the last day I spent with my Grandma before she died...but I cannot wait to see her again someday and I take great comfort in knowing that she is in Heaven, caring for the baby Harris that we have yet to meet, and waiting for us to get there!

Happy Birthday Grandma!! I wish I was partying with you right now!