LindaL
Well-Known Member
My dear beloved grandma passed away peacefully on the morning of June 18th at the ripe "young-at-heart" age of 101!! Her only child (my mother), son-in-law (my dad) and her 3 grandchildren got to see her on Thursday evening (she was in a coma-like state). Early Friday morning, my parents went to the nursing home and my mom told her it was OK to go and be with her husband (who died back in 1976). My grandma opened her eyes, looked at my parents, closed them, took a few more breaths and died. It was so quick that my mom didn't even notice at first.
Tonight was the viewing. Normally, I have a hard time going up to someone who has died lying in a casket, but my grandma will always be "alive" to me and I held her hand and told her I loved her.
Here (below) is a link to an online obituary...which is a very interesting condensed version of her life, but she was soooo much more...This just barely touches on who she really was as a person...a woman who so many admired and loved thru out the years. Her smile was ever present...when I think of her, that is what will stay with me. She loved music and dancing and singing. She always had a kind word for someone...I can't remember ever seeing her angry (altho I am sure she did at times, she never let it show).
She was from Germany, so she had a German accent, but she moved to New York, so she "added" a New York accent to the German accent...lol...then she moved to Oregon and no one outside our family could understand her...lol We often "made fun of" (in a loving way) her way of speaking because it was so endearing. She was nearly blind and wore THICK glasses, so her eyes looked so big, but that is how we knew her, so it seemed so normal to us...yet when we jokingly put her glasses on ourselves it was hilarious how big our eyes seemed! LOL She wore dentures, but insisted that she didn't need adhesive to keep them in, yet when she ate, they clanked...LOL! Oh, I have so many fun memories of her...was a cute little old lady she was...yet she was never helpless...far from it! She got up on a step stool and painted her walls into her 80's. She gardened and pruned her trees and picked her fruit from those trees into her early 90's.
After she went into the nursing home, it was hard for me to go visit her (ecept for special occasions like her Bday or Christmas). I did not want to remember her deteriorating into an OLD woman, tho even in the nursing home, she scooted herself all over the building in her wheelchair...she was almost never in her room. Everyone who worked there knew "Hildy" and loved her.
That last night I saw her...lying in her bed, nearing death, I will remember that, but all the other memories I have of her...so alive...happy...smiling...take over and THAT is the grandmother whom I will always remember in my heart.
Tomorrow we lay her to rest.
RIP Grandma...I love you!
http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Hildegard-Barany&lc=7390&mid=4291494
Tonight was the viewing. Normally, I have a hard time going up to someone who has died lying in a casket, but my grandma will always be "alive" to me and I held her hand and told her I loved her.
Here (below) is a link to an online obituary...which is a very interesting condensed version of her life, but she was soooo much more...This just barely touches on who she really was as a person...a woman who so many admired and loved thru out the years. Her smile was ever present...when I think of her, that is what will stay with me. She loved music and dancing and singing. She always had a kind word for someone...I can't remember ever seeing her angry (altho I am sure she did at times, she never let it show).
She was from Germany, so she had a German accent, but she moved to New York, so she "added" a New York accent to the German accent...lol...then she moved to Oregon and no one outside our family could understand her...lol We often "made fun of" (in a loving way) her way of speaking because it was so endearing. She was nearly blind and wore THICK glasses, so her eyes looked so big, but that is how we knew her, so it seemed so normal to us...yet when we jokingly put her glasses on ourselves it was hilarious how big our eyes seemed! LOL She wore dentures, but insisted that she didn't need adhesive to keep them in, yet when she ate, they clanked...LOL! Oh, I have so many fun memories of her...was a cute little old lady she was...yet she was never helpless...far from it! She got up on a step stool and painted her walls into her 80's. She gardened and pruned her trees and picked her fruit from those trees into her early 90's.
After she went into the nursing home, it was hard for me to go visit her (ecept for special occasions like her Bday or Christmas). I did not want to remember her deteriorating into an OLD woman, tho even in the nursing home, she scooted herself all over the building in her wheelchair...she was almost never in her room. Everyone who worked there knew "Hildy" and loved her.
That last night I saw her...lying in her bed, nearing death, I will remember that, but all the other memories I have of her...so alive...happy...smiling...take over and THAT is the grandmother whom I will always remember in my heart.
Tomorrow we lay her to rest.
RIP Grandma...I love you!
http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Hildegard-Barany&lc=7390&mid=4291494
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