My Grandmother

Two days before Thanksgiving my grandmother passed away while sitting in her favorite chair watching TV with my grandfather. She was my dad's mom and she was 86 years old. She had been married to Grandpa for over 60 years. Instead of calling her 'Grandma' or something like that, I called her by her first name, MaryAnn. The story goes that when I was born she thought she was much too young to be a grandmother and never decided on a name for me to call her. My parents kept asking her but she never gave them an answer so they just referred to my dad's parents as Grandpa Bud and MaryAnn. It stuck. I have called her MaryAnn as long as I can remember. When she did decide on a name, Grandmother Mary, it was too late she was MaryAnn. She and Grandpa tried but it was no use, MaryAnn was the same to me as Nana, Memaw or Grandma.

There never was a written or verbal agreement between my grandparents or my mom but it seemed that with my parents divorce my grandparents were given 1-2 weeks with me every summer since I was 4. The first 2 years they drove all the way from north Arkansas to take me home with them, after that they paid for my plane ticket to come visit. I was not able to visit during high school and my first year in college, I missed visiting them so much that I spent my spring break the rest of college and during P.T. school with them. After school, I wasn't able to visit them for as long as I used to but my dad and I or just me would drive up to visit for an extended weekend. My grandparents loved having the twins visit.

We were able to go and visit them at the beginning of October 2010 for MaryAnn's birthday. Todd and I both agreed that she was not doing well, but she kept telling us that it was Grandpa that wasn't doing well.

Two days before Thanksgiving we received a call from my Aunt that MaryAnn died. I was 7 months pregnant at the time. I called and begged my OB to let me drive to Arkansas for the funeral and to see my Grandpa before he moved to Maryland with my aunt. I was given permission and we loaded up the twins and headed north for a very long car ride. My doctor said I had to stop and walk every hour. So like I said this was a very LONG car ride. It was very nice to spend time with my Grandpa and letting the kids see Great Papa again. Explaining to them what happened to Great Mama was difficult but they seemed to understand as well as 3 year olds can.

Here are some pictures of twins with MaryAnn aka Great Mama, and Grandpa aka Great Papa.

Great Mama and the twins


Great Papa and Big D

Me and Grandpa