My Grandmother.......the memories

I had forgotten on an earlier post that I was going to talk about the visit that I had with my Grandmother a few weeks back. I am really not sure how old she is fixing to be my guess is in her late 80's. Her birthday is coming up this next week and we will have a party for her on March 1st. We had a good visit she loves the boys coming over. I looked at her and was amazed at all that she has seen in her life span, with technology and all. I asked her some questions about her childhood, I told her about going to the Heritage Farmstead and she said that when she was small there was no time for fun there was so much work to be done to keep the family going. A funny thing that she talked about that had changed was that a woman never told that she was pregnant. She is the oldest and when her sister under her was born she just come home from school and there was a baby!! She said when her mom was pregnant again with her other sister she actually was old enough to know, but it was never talked about. I thought that was so funny and very different from now. She also did not talk about getting married to her sister or parents. My grandfather just came over one day after they had courted for awhile and asked her father for her hand and they went to the Justice of the Peace with no family at all and got married. Then she came home to pack up her things and move. I can't even imagine that!!

I also see when I look at her all that she has been through. Her baby sister was killed in a tornado when she was around 12 yrs. old, I think. She raised 5 children seen her husband go into the military and off to war, then 2 of her sons went of to the military. Thankfully all came back safely, but she lost her husband when he was only 57 years old. She remained a widow all this time, she devoted herself to church and served faithfully until she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She has been in an assisted living facility and has had some changes with memory especially short term, but she is still plugging along. Physically she gets around better than anyone else at that facility. Then she had to bury one of her daughters-in-law two years ago and a daughter, my mom, last year. I know she never thought she would ever have to do that. Time is a funny thing. The longer though that you are here on this earth, you are going to experience so much good and bad. Here are a couple of pics of her with her great-grandchildren: