goodbye, sweet gigi ...

yesterday morning i got the call i'd been dreading for at least the last two years ... my wonderful grandmother had died just 30 minutes earlier.  she had been sliding ever so slowly towards death over these last several years - the slippery slope of dementia had crept in and slowly taken the vibrant grandmother i had always known ... so it was surely time.  fortunately, she passed away peacefully and unafraid - and in her own home.  so we have much to be thankful for.

and yet as expected as it was, i still can't quite wrap my arms around it.  as i sat right here in this spot writing a glowing happy post about our new puppy, my 92-year-old grandmother breathed her last breath and left this earth.  

i'll miss her so very much.

she was my namesake - sloan was her maiden name.  she was born in 1919 while her father was fighting WWI.  she was the youngest of of nine children, some of whom did not live to adulthood, as was not uncommon at the time.  and among the siblings who made it, they all died young by today's standards - no doubt, the result of the heavy drinking and smoking that was the norm for that generation.  but not my gigi.  she outfoxed them all ...

circa 1923

she was much more than a grandmother to me ... thanks to an acrimonious divorce between my parents when i was very young, my grandmother became a second mother to me.  and for a good chunk of time after my parents split when i was barely five, my two-parent family consisted of my mom and grandmother ... 

i was so lucky to have such a special relationship with her - i clearly remember so many wonderful times spent with her ... as a child, i remember her creativity - we made dolls from clothespins, we made fairy houses long before the book series, and countless other clever crafts.  at our sleepovers, i recall saying our prayers together as she tucked me in at night.  in my teenage years, we had traveling, shopping, vacations, graduations, you name it.  living so far from home in my married years has been tough, but we did our best and my girls adored her ... their special "gigi" (GG, short for great-greandmother).

i am so very grateful that my daughters were able to know her so well ... i'm hoping that they'll remember the same vibrant, funny, beautiful woman that i adored ...

this was right before getting tucked in - prayers included ;-)

'guess who?' and 'go fish' were perpetual favorites ...

in 2007

in 2010

above is gigi's legacy ... 2 daughters, 6 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.  what a gift her life was.  

goodbye, sweet gigi, you will be missed more than my words could ever say ...

♱