9 of 30 — Someone you wish you could meet

The person I wish I could meet would no doubt in my mind be my grandma Dorothy, She was my dad's mother. Ever since the first time my mom sat me in her room showing me the opal rings that she had given to her and one for Julie, I have been so intrigued to who she was. Unfortunately I wasn't exactly thought of yet so no opal ring for me but the Ann in my middle name is directly from her. I also remember a quilt that she made that she had given to my mom and I wanted that quilt on my bed every winter.

I always would ask my mom about her, what she was like and what happened to her. My mom told me that she was the one of the sweetest women she's ever met. But I could never really get too much information. It seemed like it would be something that would hurt my dad to talk about and since I wasn't really all that close with him until way after working at Performance I never asked him any questions. I knew she was a nurse, I knew she grew up in Scranton, PA. I knew she died from a common cold because her immune system was down from trying to survive breast cancer. I know she was just shy of 47 years old when she died and it was only 9 days before Julie was born. But I didn't know where she died. My cousin Kristina knew much more about her since it was her mom's mom. Once Kristina asked if I had ever visited her grave. I told her no because I wasn't sure where it was. She let me know it was in Grass Valley. And just happened to be the graveyard across from Lyman Gilmore and Scotten, the schools I went to for 5 years. Dumb. Wish someone would have at least told me that. When I found this out it had been 2 years since I left Grass Valley in the first place. But I made it a priority to go visit her grave every time I went to Grass Valley even if it was just on my way out before driving home even at night.

From all the pictures I've seen of her she had that classic beauty. I'd love to talk to her about growing up in the 40s and what she remembered from it and what her hopes and dreams were. Being married to my dad's dad would have been a challenge in itself and would love to talk to her about that. I want to know how my dad was as a kid and how she handled raising 5 rowdy kids. I was never close with my mom's mom. Once I was born my mom had my grandma over a lot to give Julie attention so she didn't get jealous of the attention I was getting since I was the new baby. So Julie got really close with her and she still is a lot closer with her than I am. Maybe she could help me learn why I am the way I am sometimes.Your family is supposed to help you find that stuff out. And really it would just be nice to have a grandma that isn't crazy. One that would teach me things like how to sew and have awesome family recipes to give down to the next generation. Meeting her would be a dream come true.

 

I was hoping to find some pictures of her but my family failed on emailing them to me.If they ever do I'll update the post with them.