So this is a hard post to write. Very hard. Last night we said goodbye to Jason's grandma, Grandma Reynolds. She passed away last night after a short fight with cancer. She was a lady to be reckoned with, absolutely wonderful. She will be sorely missed by so many, and never, ever forgotten.
Jason and his grandmother had a tradition - every year, without fail, they got together to make Christmas cookies. I remember the first year that I was included in this tradition. I admit, I was nervous as I felt that I was intruding in "their" tradition! But Grandma Reynolds quickly made me feel welcome, putting me in charge of making the Anna's Gunk. That wasn't a smart thing to do... for those of you who know me, my idea of baking is opening the Pillsbury dough and baking the little premade circles of dough, usually burning them :) But anyways, I did it. I made the Anna's Gunk according to the recipe with a little bit of help and was quite proud of myself. I finished icing it and then turned to show Jason & his grandma. I will never forget the look on her face! I thought that I had prepared everything just right... and I guess I did, but they had just never made with bright pink icing before!!! Once the shock wore off, they were ok that it was pink and we all ate it anyways. I made a mental note - no bright colours on the cookies or squares!
The next year I was terrified. I came up with excuses not to go but neither one of them would hear of it. So off we went. I remember going into her apartment and everything was laid out on her table - the flour, butter, measuring cups.... along with all sorts of bright food colouring and different flavours for the icing! She looked at me and smiled, and I just knew that everything was going to be ok! After that year, the icing was all sorts of colours, mainly pink because it just looked so pretty :) It was nice that she thought about that for me, and made me feel so welcome.
So much to say, but I'm not at my own computer right now. Its hard to hold back the tears while people are looking at me, but that's ok. I just wanted to be able to say goodbye Grandma Reynolds and that we all love you. I know that you will be watching over us, our own angel.
P.S. Thanks for the Christmas cookies - we're going to keep the tradition going.
5 comments:
Melanie and Jason, Joey and Chris I am really sad to hear of the passing of your special Grandma, but happy that you have great memories to make you smile. I hope this note finds you on a more softer moment in your grief. Thinking of you Jo!
Thank you Jo, for thinking of us. We have lots of great memories of her, and miss her dearly. Thank you.
Jason....sorry for te loss of your grandma....dad.
And she is now looking down and blessing your family, and this Christmas coming make a cookie for her, Pink will do just fine.
We'll definetly be thinking of her when we're making the cookies... will be hard, but we'll do it.
Post a Comment