Taking Grandma out for an ice cream

I think I’ll spend a few days sharing some of my memories of Grandma…

While Steve and I were still in college we went down to visit both of my Grandmas.  We stopped at the nursing home in Coulterville and were talking with Grandma when we decided to go get an ice cream.  Grandma always loved ice cream.  I have lots of memories of going out for ice cream or having ice cream at home with her and Pop.  She also always loved going out for a drive.  Grandma had no idea who we were, but she was happy to go with us anyway.

We asked the nursing staff and Steve signed her out.  We drove down to Dairy Queen and got grandma a dish of ice cream.  We ate and then she said she was ready to go back now.  Total outing time until she was ready to go back, about 15 minutes :-)

After Steve and I left we called my parents to tell them about the visit.  When we told them we took her to Dairy Queen they were shocked, apparently no one had ever taken Grandma on an outing since she had moved into the home 9 months ago because they weren’t sure if she would go back so easy.  Well, ignorance was bliss, as we probably would not have wanted to be the first ones either.  It was a good thing though, as Grandma got to go out on many outings after this.

I’ve started to scan in a few of the pictures I have and posting them to Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarah_schrock00/sets/72157606298343684/

Grandma is gone

My grandma Elsie passed away Sunday evening in Illinois.  She would have been 100 on 26-Aug.

This week, as I’ve been telling people about Grandma they frequently said “I hope she holds on to make it to 100.”  While I understand the kind sentiment, this past week she was suffering, and we didn’t want to see her suffer any longer, so we are thankful that she was able to go. 

Her whole life she was extremely healthy – she was probably the only 99 year-old woman in the nursing home who wasn’t on any medication.

She fell and broke her hip a couple of years ago.  They came with the ambulance and took her to the hospital to have it repaired.  They kept asking her what hurt, but she always said that nothing was hurting.  She also didn’t show any signs of hurting.  They didn’t give her any pain medication until she started her surgery.  She was always one tough cookie.

Grandma was confused though – that is why she was at the home. 

It was over 10 years ago the last time she recognized me as her granddaughter or my dad as her son.  Two years ago on my last visit to see her my mom pulled out a photograph she keeps in her wallet.  It was a 25 year old picture of my dad.  We showed it to Grandma and she instantly recognized it as Del-Rae and started going on about how handsome he was.